Many members of this year’s Wilson City Little League Ages 8-9 all-star team experienced the disappointment of falling to South Durham in last year’s North Carolina Little League District 6 championship game last summer. Tuesday night at Gillette Baseball Complex, they were on the other side of it, capturing the ages 8-9 District 6 title with a 4-1 victory over South Durham.

WCLL, which went 3-0 in the tournament, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning and 4-0 in the fourth en route to the players throwing their caps and gloves in the air in celebration.

“These boys want to compete,” said WCLL head coach Bryan Green. “This South Durham team, they’re great. They got us last year in the age group before. So for a lot of the returning kids, this was a day they’ve been looking forward to for over a year.”

Harper Murray grabbed the win on the mound with five shutout innings for Wilson, allowing just three hits while striking out four and walking none.

“I was throwing the ball hard and getting people with my change-up down low,” Murray said.

Corbin Adams led the way at the plate with a 3 for 3 game and an RBI, while Murray collected a pair of hits, including a double, scored two runs and drove one in and Hudson Jones went 2 for 2 with a double, run scored and two RBIs.

“We really hit the ball well, we had 10 hits,” Jones said. “Our defense was good and we had no errors. Our pitching was good too.”

After a scoreless first inning, WCLL batted around and plated three runs in the bottom of the second.

RBI doubles from Murray and Jones made it a 3-0 ball game, and Wilson added another in the fourth, as Murray and some sharp fielding kept South Durham off the board going into the sixth inning.

“Our defense has been great all season,” Green said. “With that, just playing smart baseball. They’re good kids, but they’re still kids. We expect that there’s going to be some mistakes, but we’re going to play through those mistakes and hope to win every inning. That is our ask of all the kids, let’s go win every inning. If we lose the first one, let’s go get the next one. So they stayed focused on that, and they did a great job.”

South Durham got on the board in the top of the sixth, but Adams, who took over on the mound to start that inning, stranded a runner on third to send Wilson into celebration mode.

“It was great,” Jones said. “We worked hard for it and we did what we wanted to do.”

The WCLL 8-9 team will now get to participate in the state tournament next month.

For now, the team will focus on enjoying a moment that Green hopes the young players will carry with them throughout their baseball careers.

“I hope that they’re out here in 20 years with their kids coaching, and they’re having this conversation with (the Wilson Times),” Green said. “This is a really cool place. It’s a special place. It’s probably one of the best fields in the state, if not the best field in the state. So a lot of memories are made here, and when they come back, I hope it is special.”

Score by innings:

SD 000 001 — 1

Wilson 030 10x — 4

WP-Harper Murray 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. LP-Joe Piccinni 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.

LEADING HITTERS — South Durham: Corbin Adams 3-3, RBI; Harper Murray 2-3, 2B, 2 R, RBI; Hudson Jones 2-2, 2B, R, 2 RBI.