By ALEX SPONSELLER

The Cranston East and Western 11-year-old All-Stars are set to do battle once again, this time for the District I championship.

The two teams played each other last week at Speck Field, with the host CELL squad taking home the 5-0 shutout win.

CELL’s Eli Ozbek got the win on the mound. Danny Mahoney led the way at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI while Graham Reed and Ozbek also knocked in runs.

“Eli is a beast that throws hard, he’s dominant for his age. He threw the ball well. Our defense also made no errors, they made all the plays. We focused a lot on defense going into this so it was nice to see it come through,” said CELL manager Andy Barron.

CELL next beat North Providence 9-3 to advance to the state championship. Hunter Stys went 3-for-3 with three RBI while Patty O’Grady knocked in two runs of his own along with Drew Barron who recorded two RBI. Joey Salimeno also knocked in a run in the win.

“We have been getting help throughout the lineup which is nice, even our nonstarters have been getting on base and putting pressure on the other teams. It’s been a group effort,” said Andy Barron.

After falling into the losers bracket with the loss, CWLL rebounded to beat North Providence 8-4 to advance to the championship game.

Although CELL got the better of the first matchup, it is excepting a tight battle against the tough CWLL All-Stars.

“They’re a very good team. They’re very talented and have guys that can hit. They’re going to put the ball in play, so it’s going to be about which team makes the plays. We’re pretty evenly matched, so we can’t give them any runs,” said Andy Barron. “We can’t let them take advantage of our mistakes.”

The two teams met on Wednesday evening at Speck Field but the results were not available at press time. If CWLL won on Wednesday, it would for the “if” game on Thursday.