Murrayhill Little League rallied from an early deficit, and avenged its only prior loss in the international tournament with a 9-1 victory over Klamath Falls' South Suburban Little League in the championship game of the Oregon state tournament in Pendleton.

Murrayhill had lost its second game during pool competition in the nine-team tournament, then won three consecutive games to earn the title. The Beaverton-based league advanced to the Northwest Region tournament in San Bernardino, California.

South Suburban grabbed an early lead in the championship game on a solo home run in the top of the first inning, but Murrayhill evened the score on Jacob Zanon's solo shot in the bottom of the frame. The next time through the Murrayhill batting order, Jacob Zanon added a second solo home run to lift Murrayhill into the lead, and Matt Shaw stretched the lead to 5-1 with a two-run shot.

Murrayhill added four more runs in the game's latter innings, while Murrayhill pitcher Reza Aleaziz scattered four hits and allowed no runs after Klamath Falls' first inning salvo.

"Reza had control of the game at the end of the third," Murrayhill manager Scott Zanon said after the game. "He was bringing it. He really found his groove."

Jacob Zanon paced the Beaverton team's offense with three hits, while Shaw and Jake Scherer added two apiece.

"The boys were ready to play," added Scott Zanon. "(Klamath Falls) started the same pitcher (as in the teams' earlier meeting) and that gave the boys a lot of confidence."

Murrayhill's championship run gave the league five state championships in a six year span in the major baseball division, and ten championships since the league was first chartered in the early 1990s. Including Lake Oswego Little League's championship in 2007, Oregon's District 4 has now produced the last six state champions.

Murrayhill had opened the tournament with a blink-and-you-missed-it 10-0 win over St. Helens Little League -- Connor Shaw threw a one-hitter and Chandler Whitney slammed a pair of home runs as Murrayhill needed just 59 minutes to secure the win -- but the Beaverton-based team then suffered its first defeat of the international tournament in a 3-1 loss to South Suburban. Whitney's solo home run in the third was the game's only offense through four innings, before South Suburban tied the game in the fifth and moved in front on Josh Overstreet's two-run homer.

"We played very, very well. Just good baseball," said Scott Zanon despite the defeat. "We ran into some velocity, really, for the first time."

"We're at our best when we're challenged," added the Murrayhill manager. "There's a pretty good chance we'll see them again."

A rematch could only occur in the championship game, and both squads reached that game following a pair of wins. The two teams claimed 12-1 victories in their final pool contests, with South Suburban's topping St. Helens and Murrayhill ousting homestanding Pendleton Little League in what amounted to a play-in game for the pool's second semifinal round berth.

In the semifinal round, South Suburban dispatched Medford National Central Little League, 5-1, and Murrayhill outlasted a high-octane Hermiston Little League team, 14-9, to earn a rematch.

Hermiston averaged 10-plus runs per game at the state tournament during a 4-0 run through pool competition, and out-hit Murrayhill 15-9 in their semifinal round clash. But the District 5 champions committed four errors and gave away a pair of two-run leads in the early innings against Murrayhill. Shaw's two-run homer keyed a four-run first inning rally as Murrayhill erased an early 2-0 deficit, and Whitney's grand slam -- a welcome present on his 13th birthday -- re-established Murrayhill's advantage following a four-run burst by Hermiston in the top of the inning.

Nychal Gritz, Jesus Rosales, and Jason Almaguer each homered for Hermiston, giving the team 24 round-trippers in 13 tournament games.

"Hermiston is one of the best hitting teams I've ever seen," said Scott Zanon. "But they could just see we weren't going away. You could just feel we had control of the game after the third inning."

Zack Kiene belted his first-ever home run and Aleaziz added a shot of his own in the late innings as Murrayhill pulled away.

"We knew Hermiston was really good," Scott Zanon said. "We knew we were going to have to outhit them to win the game."

Murrayhill's triumph at the state tournament propelled the team into the Northwest Region tournament, where the team again reached for its heavy lumber. Murrayhill opened the tournament with three consecutive wins in which the team scored a combined 42 runs and homered nine times. For the tournament, Murrayhill batted a collective .361, and reached the championship game before falling, 10-1, to Mill Creek (Washington) Little League.