TRACY — Manteca slowed down the high-octane Ripon offense Sunday, but slowing it down was not enough as Ripon’s Harper Downs provided a 1-2 punch to help Ripon stake its claim to its first-ever baseball all-star banner in a 5-1 win over Manteca in the District 67 10U All-Star championship game at Tracy Sports Complex.

“This feels very special,” Ripon coach Adam Nieweg said. “This is the first baseball all-star banner in Ripon history. They hit the ball, pitched well

“I can’t take much of the credit because a lot of these kids have been practicing with other coaches for the last four months. To get them all together to work together and play as a team was awesome to see. They worked their butts off and played hard the whole time. It was a good tournament.”

Ripon posted all the runs it would need in the first inning. Jace Blanco walked, Bo Brayton singled and Robbie Nieweg grounded out to plate Blanco for a 1-0 lead. Brayton came around to score on a wild pitch before Calvin Vander Plaats walked. Downs (3 for 3, two RBI, two doubles, run) doubled in Vander Plaats and Downs scored on Troy Rubenaker’s double for a 4-0 Ripon lead. Connor Paris doubled in the fifth and scored on a double by Downs to give Ripon a 5-1 lead.

Downs pitched four innings, sprinkling five hits with a walk and a hit batter, giving up a run. Connor Paris finished out the last two innings, yielding one run on one hit, striking out the side in the fourth inning with four total strikeouts and two walks.  

Austin Shirrat doubled for Manteca in the first inning and scored on single by Jacob Husband (2 for 3, RBI) to make the score 4-1. Manteca got its other run in the fifth inning when Lincoln Reynolds led off the frame with a walk and got to second on Lucca Day’s single. Reynolds took third and home on wild pitches for the final scored of 5-2.

Ripon will represent District 67 in the Section 6 championships at 4 p.m. Friday at Julien Field in Turlock.