ROCK FALLS — Despite conceding four runs early in Friday evening’s championship game against Freeport, the Rochelle Little League 11-12 Boys All-Star Team rallied for nine unanswered runs to take the lead and defeat Freeport 9-4 to win District 19 and advance to the Sectional 4 Championship in Rock Falls beginning Friday, July 20.

Freeport scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning before tallying one run in both the second and third innings to take a 4-0 lead over Rochelle. Erich Metzger’s single in the top of the second inning was Rochelle’s lone hit through the first three innings.

But the Rochelle bats fired up in the top of the fourth inning, and some sound base running allowed the boys to plate three runs and cut the Freeport lead to 4-3. Paul Swartz singled before Aidan Rodriguez and Christian Burnette drew walks. Landon DeLille walked, and Brock Metzger singled before Tommy Tourdot walked. Swartz scored on an error, and Rodriguez scored on a passed ball before Burnette came home on Tourdot’s walks.

Rochelle added two more runs in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead 5-4. Rodriguez walked with one out, and Erich singled before both runners scored on passed balls. Rochelle completed its rally with four runs in the top of the sixth inning. Brock singled and scored on Dylan Gapski’s RBI single, and Swartz walked before Noah Lara cracked a three-run homer to left field. Freeport was unable to score over the final three innings.

Gapski pitched all six innings for Rochelle to record a complete game while striking out 12 batters. Rochelle finished 3-0 in the District 19 Championship and the boys will advance to play the winners of District 5, District 13 and District 20 in the Sectional 4 Championship. The sectional tournament will run from July 20-24.