Pinpoint pitching to start and end the game Wednesday propelled the Ripon Phillies to a 5-4 quarterfinal win over the defending champion Northgate Red Sox in the District 67 Majors Tournament of Champions on Gillen Field at Northgate Little League.

Trenton Cloward toed the rubber to start the game for Ripon and struck out the first five batters he faced and retired the first six. With the Phillies leading 5-4 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Ripon’s Ethan Vanderplaats came in to pitch with runners on first and second and two out. Vanderplaats posted a strikeout to end the fourth inning and after walking Jacob Qualle to start the fifth, Vanderplaats twirled six strikeouts in a row to end the game.

The Phillies never trailed. Ripon took a 2-0 first inning lead when Cloward scored on a fielder’s choice by Jacob Hern (RBI) and Alex Girardi scored on an error.

Back-to-back singles by the Phillies in the second inning led to three more runs. Cloward (2 for 4, RBI, double) singled in Henry Berger with Cash Escalante and Cloward coming in Jaxon Herrick’s two-RBI single for a 5-0 Ripon lead.

Patience paid off for Northgate in the third inning. Bases-loaded walks to Ryan Allen and Frank Hoffman plated Aubrey Hoffman and Allen; Iziais Rodriguez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, bringing in Andres Duque and Qualle singled in Michael Casillas for the inning’s four runs. The Red Sox left the bases loaded and had only three baserunners the rest of the way on a single by Rodriguez and a pair of walks.

Northgate plays Patterson this afternoon at 5:30 in a consolation contest and Friday at 5:30 p.m. Ripon faces Manteca in the semifinal.