As the sun set over the Dallas County Sportsplex Monday night, the Selma Blue All-Stars were six outs form being eliminated from the 11-and-12-year-old subdistrict baseball tournament. Selma trailed 6-2 and had shown no signs of pulling off a miracle.

In the dugout, assistant coach Chris Nichols kept asking his team the same question over and over — “Do you want to play tomorrow night?”

Selma Blue answered with its bats.

The Selma All-Stars scored 17 total runs in the fifth and sixth innings to stun Holtville 19-8 and to reach the subdistrict championship game, which will be played at the Sportsplex Tuesday.

“A lot of teams would’ve packed it in, but I told them if we could get a couple and cut it in half then we could rattle them and we could win this game,” said Selma coach Scott Etheridge.

Holtville seemed in control after a two-run home run by Alden Barentine that made it 6-2, but Selma refused to quit.

Noah Smith scored on a wild pitch to start the rally, pulling Selma within 6-3. Cameron Price doubled to right field for an RBI and Nathan Johnson added another score on a groundout that scored Jayden Tubbs to make it 6-5 Holtville.

Nathan Johnson singled to tie the game and Holt Utsey’s double brought in Jalen Tate and gave Selma a 7-6 lead.

Mathew King, Mathew Free and Noah Smith brought in three more runs before the inning was over.

That was just the beginning.

After Holtville pulled within 10-8 after five, Selma put the hammer the down in the top of the sixth. Selma erupted for nine more runs in the inning and lessened the pressure on pitcher Brady Roberts, who shut down Holtville after entering in the fifth.

“He hadn’t pitched all year because he is wild,” Etheridge said. “It’s something we’ve been working on and working on his technique and working every day. He finally got a little confidence and he was throwing strikes. When he is on he can throw it as hard as anybody and he can shut down the game like he did.”

Roberts struck out the side in the sixth to cap off the wild comeback. Etheridge said he stayed confident in his team, knowing they were getting a bit lucky early on. The patience paid off.

“That’s our [method of operation]. We never give up,” Etheridge said. “We hit the ball well and it was just a matter of time before we started swinging the bats. We were hitting it good early but just hitting it right at people. They started falling.”

The victory sets up an all Selma championship game. Selma Blue will face the Selma Red All-Stars Tuesday night at the Sportsplex for the subdistrict title. Selma Blue will have to beat Selma Red twice, due to an earlier loss in the double elimination tournament.

“They are a good team and we will have to play our best game to beat them,” Etheridge said.

Tuesday’s game starts at 6:30 p.m.