Challenge met as Southwestern edged Dunkirk, 8-7, in seven innings.

Both teams came into the game undefeated with the favorite, Dunkirk, rolling through the North bracket. For the South, the championship game underdog Southwestern had played good competition through its bracket and had to play from behind in three out of its four games.

“Our kids don’t give up, we preach keeping our heads up and playing six full innings of baseball,” Southwestern coach Troy Bouckhuyt said. “(Wednesday night) the kids showed character and did just that.”

Dunkirk jumped out quick in the first inning, scoring five runs off a couple walks, overthrows and only one hit, a triple by Zach Zentz. In the bottom half of the inning Southwestern continued its strong hitting tournament with a two-RBI double by Chase Hartnett and a RBI single by Judd Harris to cut the deficit to 5-3.

The Southwestern All-Stars hold the District 38 Little League (9-10) championship banner Wednesday night. Submitted photo

Both teams settled in and played good defense over the next couple innings, keeping the game close until Dunkirk scored two more runs in the fourth to increase its lead to 7-3. Southwestern hit the ball hard, but they were not finding gaps and Dunkirk was fielding the ball well. Southwestern grabbed one run in the fifth inning to take the game into the top of the sixth inning, trailing 7-4.

Tate Catanese, who has been Southwestern’s workhorse all tournament, came in and shut down Dunkirk’s offense in the sixth, giving Southwestern one more at-bat to make something happen.

After three walks and some aggressive base running, Southwestern had pulled within one run. Later in the inning, Kyler Wojtowicz hit a sacrifice to the right side of the field to score Brody Larson to tie the game, 7-7.

After a leadoff walk, Tate Catanese once again pitched lights out and shut down the middle of Dunkirk’s batting order to set the stage for the bottom of the seventh.

Judd Harris ripped a leadoff single and Kayden Abers stayed patient at the plate, going deep into the count to force a walk that put runners at first and second with nobody out. Jonas Gesing entered the batter’s box with a short memory. Gesing had struck out twice early in the game.

“I stopped him before he went to the plate,” Bouckhuty said. “I told him what I have been telling these kids the whole tournament: ‘Keep your head up because you will get a chance to redeem yourself.”’

Gesing did just that when he crushed a 0-1 pitch to the left center gap, scoring Judd Harris and giving Southwestern an 8-7 victory.

“These kids worked very hard and played a lot of baseball in three weeks,” Bouckhuyt said. “They deserved this championship.”