THE MARINERS held on for a thrilling 6-4 victory over the Phillies and captured the Benicia Little League Majors World Series title. The Mariners are (standing from left) coach Ron Maio, Cade Zielstorff, manager Al Zielstorff, Connor Maio, P.J. Morgan, R.J. Cabral, Simon Place, Gabe Haaberg, coach Steve Naratil, Brandon Nelson; (kneeling from left) Jack Castillo, Domini Naratil, Dylan Villanueva, Bryce Eldridge and T.J. Valentine.

The Mariners escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the sixth inning thanks to a game-ending double play and held on to beat the Phillies, 6-4, to capture the Benicia Little League Majors World Series championship Saturday morning at Community Park.

It was the second championship in the past four years for the Mariners (16-10), who won the final two games of the best-of-three 2015 series.

“I felt something special about this team when I first put them together,” said Mariners manager Al Zielstorff, whose team started the season 0-4. “They never gave up on themselves and always kept working hard.”

The Mariners had a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth when the Phillies began to make a move. A single by Blake Harris and a double by Bryce Colaizzi brought home one run and Andrew McLarty made it 6-4 with a RBI single.

The Phillies weren’t done. After holding the Mariners scoreless in the top of the sixth, Quentin Rivero delivered a one-out single to center and Chase Long reached safely on an error, putting the tying runs at second and third with one out. A walk to Harris – the No. 9 batter in the lineup – loaded the bases for Trammell, one of the Phillies’ best players.

“We’ve probably had more come-from-behind wins than any team I’ve ever been a part of and I honestly thought we were going to pull it off,” said Phillies manager Derek Trammell.

Dylan Trammell hit a liner that looked destined to reach the gap in left-center, but Maio made a spectacular leaping catch, then quickly threw to second to double up a base runner for a game-ending double play.

“I thought that was going over Connor’s head and we’d have a tie game,” Zielstorff said.

“We did everything we needed to do, but their shortstop just made a great play,” coach Trammell said. “There’s nothing you can do about that.”

Pitcher Domini Naratil went the distance for the Mariners, scattering seven hits and only one walk with five strikeouts.

“Dom stepped up and pitched really well and we had some clutch hitting and defense,” Zielstorff said.

Phillies starter Dylan Trammell, who owned the Mariners in Game 1 and throughout most of the regular season, struggled a bit in Game 3. A double by Naratil to lead off the game and a single by Cade Zielstorff led to an early 1-0 Mariners lead. The Phillies responded with two runs in the bottom of the first on singles by Trammell, Colaizzi and McLarty, but a key double by Maio helped push the Mariners in the lead for good in the top of the third. A walk to Dylan Villanueva, a stolen base and a couple of ground outs led to another run in the fourth, and a big double by P.J. Morgan in the fifth made it 6-2.

“We made Dylan (Trammell) work for what he got,” coach Zielstorff said. “Our goal was to get the pitch count up on him. We felt if we could do that, we had a chance, so we took some pitches.”

“Dylan didn’t have his best stuff but give credit to the Mariners,” Derek Trammell said. “They just kept fighting and nicking away at us and ended up with the win.”

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