For the second year in a row, an Ellicottville/Cattaraugus-Little Valley Little League softball team will trek to Long Island to compete for a state championship.

The E/C-LV Junior League all-stars won the Section 1 championship Saturday, defeating River Rock, 13-2 and 17-6, in Cattaraugus. E/C-LV begins play in the six-team, double-elimination New York state tournament Wednesday morning in Commack (Long Island) against an opponent to-be-announced at press time.

The juniors include seven members of last year’s E/C-LV Major League team, which reached the state pool play round in Fishkill last summer. Jeff Horth, who coached last year’s majors and this year’s juniors, said the winning formula has stayed the same.

“We’re not really doing anything differently,” he said. “We’re just grown. They’re bigger, they’re stronger, they’re better. But we’ll see.

“I don’t know what to expect. This is another first for us. I would assume the teams down there are going to be very, very good.”

While he was pleased to see his team make contact at the late and play aggressively, Horth said defense will determine how far the team advances. Pitchers Emma Rupp and Tawnie Bowers combined to win the two sectional games.

“Well, we have very solid pitching and very good defense,” said Horth, a coach at several youth baseball and softball levels for 18 years. “If we’re going to win games, that’s how we’re going to win them.

“(Saturday), we played almost flawless defense. In fact out of the two games, we committed two errors. So yeah, they’re a very strong defensive team.”