7th inning rally propels Lufkin All-Stars to 7-6 win over Illinois at Junior League World Series

Taylor, MI - The Lufkin Junior All-Stars had the hometown fans on the edge of their seats Sunday afternoon as they rallied late in their opening game of the Junior League World Series.

Heading into the Junior League World Series, the Lufkin All-Stars talked about having to get their swing back. It did not take long to do that in their opening game against the Warren Park Youth Baseball Little League out of Chicago.

With Hunter Ditsworth on the mound, Lufkin did face a scare in the first inning after giving up a hit and a walk, Chicago had runners on second and third but a hit back to Ditsworth and a fly ball to center fielder Christian Mumphrey kept Chicago from scoring.

Ditsworth got the scoring started for the boys from the Pineywoods in the first inning with a double that brought in two runs. Ditsworth was brought home by a Sam Flores RBI double. The first inning was capped off by a Mark Requena single that would make the game 4-0 after 1 inning.

Lufkin sent Illinois down in the second with Ditsworth only allowing one hit. Lufkin hoped to get one more run in the second by Chip Buchanan but he would get thrown out trying to steal home.

In the third inning, Lufkin would have their first 1-2-3 inning, not giving up any hits.

In Illinois' half of the fourth, Jake Bleeden would be caught trying to steal home with catcher Charlie Deaton getting the tag out off of the throw from Ditsworth.

The 4-0 score would stay the same until the seventh inning. Ditsworth would get into some trouble and give up two singles and a walk to get the bases loaded. Manager Orillio Flores would make the decision to pull Ditsworth and put in Ricky Rodriguez.

After Rodriguez would walk in a run, Requena would then get called to the mound but it would not get better as Illinois puts up 6 runs in their half of the seventh.

Down 2 in the 7th, Lufkin did what Lufkin does best and that is not giving up. After Lufkin loaded the bases, Ditsworth stepped up and delivered with a double. The first two runs came in easily. Cameron Jackson would round third and the throw home was not in time as Lufkin would come back and win 7-6. Lufkin would score 7 runs on 6 hits and have no errors. Illinois scored six runs on 9 hits with two errors. Lufkin left four runners on base while Illinois left five on base.

Lufkin will play on Monday at 1 pm Texas time against the Elbert County Little League from Georgia.

The full bracket can be found here.