But by the end of the contest, the Lincoln Glen Little League squad had reminded everyone that they had home-field advantage by picking up a hard-fought 8-7 victory. The team now advances to the Section 5 tournament.

It was a well-pitched game from start to finish--and right hander Tucker Bacon started and ended it for Lincoln Glen. Bacon recorded eight strikeouts, many of them coming courtesy of the movement on his well-controlled changeup. Ryan Saul and Alex Abiog manned the mound for Quito, and Abiog fanned one an inning during his stint.

Quito struck first, and struck hard, to open the ballgame. Kevin Scott led off with a double to the left field wall, and lefty Michael Dugan boarded on a perfect bunt. Both Scott and Dugan scored on a ground rule double by clean-up man Grant Napier. Not to be outdone by his teammates, Ryan Hoerger nailed the team's third double of the inning, this one a ground-rule shot to center which scored Napier from second. Joe Nieto arrived in the batter's box next and singled to left, driving the score to 4-0.

Lincoln Glen, however, came roaring back in the bottom of the second inning. Jordan Crocker had the first RBI of the frame when he brought Justin Bruce home. Troy Paskert laid down the second beautiful bunt of the game to get on base and advance Crocker. They, along with Cole Carnahan and Taylor Meeker, would all come around for runs in the inning, while Marquis Onorato belted a double, the team's first extra-base hit of the night.

"Both of the teams really capitalized on their chances," said Lincoln Glen coach Todd Meeker. "We just did a little bit better. They might have made one more mistake than we did, and that's what the game came down to."

The Lincoln Glen lineup hit again in the fourth inning, this time with Jimmy Riley serving as sparkplug. After his single to left center, Taylor Meeker and Bacon cracked back-to-back base hits, while Onorato boarded on a key error. By the time Bruce ripped a textbook sacrifice fly to centerfield, Lincoln Glen had pushed the score to 8-4.

Quito rallied back in the fifth, as lead-off hitter Kevin Scott--who manager Mike Dugan later called "the heart and soul of the team"--singled to left field to kick off the effort. T.J. Conroy smacked his second hit of the night two batters later, while Hoerger pitched in a key two-out, two-RBI single. The next two runners boarded on errors to plate Hoerger, but the comeback fell short.

Quito held Lincoln Glen in the fifth, aided by an impressive grab by rightfielder Dominic Zucca, but the team grounded out three times in a row to end the game in the top of the sixth.

The Lincoln Glen all-star championship team includes Cole Carnahan, Jimmy Riley, Taylor Meeker, Tucker Bacon, Marquis Onorato, Justin Bruce, Graham Moore, Jordan Crocker, Joey Sullivan, Troy Paskert and Nick Bragg.

The Quito 9/10 all-stars were Kevin Scoot, Michael Dugan, Eric Spence, T.J. Conroy, Grant Napier, Ryan Hoerger, Joe Nieto, Michael Lima, Alex Abiog, Dominic Zucca, Jacob Sisneros and Ryan Saul.