Only four teams in the state of Illinois remain in the running for a 12-year-old Little League state championship and Robinson is one of them.

Robinson Community Little League’s 12-year-old all-star team won the Section 1 championship Monday night to qualify for the state tournament in Moline this weekend.

After winning the District 1 championship at Mt. Carmel, Robinson opened play in the Section 1 Tournament in Paris last weekend and split a pair of games on Saturday. However, their record in the three-team, round-robin format was good enough to advance to the winner-take-all championship game.

That game was slated to be played on Sunday, but rained forced it to be pushed back to Monday. On Monday, Robinson squared off with the host team, Paris, who had beaten Robinson in round-robin play Saturday (7-4).

However, Robinson was able to turn the tables in the rematch and picked up a 4-0 win.

All the runs were scored in the top of the fourth inning, when Robinson put together a big rally. With one out, Dagg Thompson, Felix Reynolds, Jaxon Hires and Deek Thompson delivered consecutive singles to five Robinson a 1-0 lead. Then, pinch-hitter Walker McDowell followed with a ground ball to the second baseman, but in an effort to try to turn a double play, the shortstop dropped the throw from the second baseman, allowing both pinch-runner Kaden Pasero and Hires to score and give Robinson a 3-0 advantage. Zack Riggs then delivered a RBI ground out to plate Deek Thompson and extend the advantage to 4-0.

That was more than enough support for Dagg Thompson, who tossed a complete-game shutout. Thompson allowed just two hits, walked two and struck out 11 over six shutout innings to earn the win.

Hires led Robinson at the plate with two singles and a run scored, while Deek Thompson singled, knocked in a run and scored a run, Dagg Thompson singled and scored a run, Reynolds and Jetson Hoalt added a base hit, McDowell and Riggs each drove in a run and Kaden Pasero scored a run.

Robinson (6-2) advances to the 12-year-old (Major) State Tournament for the first time since 2004. Members of that team included Derek Hannahs, Meyers Leonard, Cody Chamblin, Bryan McCullough, Jimmy Stevens, Don Daugherty, Scotty Dunlap, Ryan Black, Shane Redmon, Clayton Watts, Jory Matteson and Nick Atteberry. Current RHS head baseball coach Reggie Truitt was the head coach of that squad, while he was assisted by Chris Thurman and Chad Veenstra.

Robinson also won Section 1 titles in 1999, 1990, 1989, 1975 and in 1964, when they also won the state championship for the first and only time. Players on the 1964 state championship team included Bob Sisk, Larry Smith, Larry Rains, Mike Stewart, Randy Stephens, Danny Swaner, Mike McSchooler, Tom Tuttle, David Simpson, Doug Dennis, Terry Thompson, Tim Stuckey, Doug Miller, Alan Truitt and Mike Guyer. Manager was Don Smith and assistant coach was Don Stewart.

This year’s tournament will take place in Moline and Robinson will face Hinsdale in the first game of the double-elimination tournament Saturday at noon, while Elmhurst and Oglesby will play in the second game at 5 p.m. The winners of those two games will play Sunday at noon, while the losers will meet in an elimination game at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Another elimination game will be played Monday at 6:30 p.m., while the championship game is slated for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. An if necessary, winner-take-all championship game would be played Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

The winner of the State Tournament advances to the Great Lakes Region Tournament in Whitestown, Ind., Aug. 6-10, with the winner advancing to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., Aug. 17-28.