The 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds of the Bend North Little League All-Star softball team had already gone further than any team in its league history has gone before.

On Saturday, they go one step further. Bend North will play Gastineau Channel Little League from Juneau, Alaska, in San Bernardino, California, in the Little League Northwest Regional tournament.

For six days, Bend North will play the state champions from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming for a chance to advance to the Little League Softball World Series in Greenville, North Carolina.

No Bend North softball team has ever advanced to the state tournament, let alone the regional tournament, prior to this year.

“It feels really good to accomplish this because a lot of people didn’t think that we could do it because we have never done it before,” said pitcher Janelle Guiney. “But we did, and we are really excited.”

And the players have good reason to be excited. They will play the best teams from the Northwest region at Al Houghton Stadium which holds 8,000 spectators. The games will be streamed live on ESPN+ and the winner gets a spot in the Little League World Series starting Aug. 6.

Bend North had to win the state tournament in Erv Lind Stadium in Portland to earn the right to travel to San Bernardino. Which they did, by winning two of three games in pool play before playing in the knockout tournament earlier this month.

Once the team advanced to the eight-team bracket, North Bend’s bats came alive while the pitching and defense remained on point, winning all three of its games — a 14-0 win over Beaumont, a 7-0 win over Del Norte in the semifinals and a 5-0 against South Beaverton in the championship. By shutting out all three of its opponents, Bend North claimed its first state title.

“We started getting our bats going,” Guiney said. “Our fielding was starting to work. Everything was coming together against these other teams.”

Throughout tournament play, the Bend North defense did not commit an error.

“That is pretty phenomenal for 11-year-old girls,” said coach Kevin Guiney, Janelle’s father.

Confidence began to swell among the players the deeper they advanced in the tournament. Belief began to really set in once they realized that one of the toughest teams who Bend had barely sneaked by in pool had been beaten in the semifinals.

“Once we saw that (South Beaverton had beaten Medford), we started to have a lot of confidence that we could win,” said catcher Jessie Berry, who finished with nine hits, five RBIs and three doubles in the six-game tournament.

Bend North’s first game of the state tournament was against Medford Little League. Berry had an RBI double in the first inning and that was all the scoring that took place.

Meanwhile pitcher Janelle Guiney was perfect in the pitcher’s circle. The 13-year-old did not allow a hit, issue a walk or hit a batter. She sat down all 18 batters she faced, striking out 16 Medford batters in the 1-0 win.

“There were a lot of big, tall girls on that (Medford) team,” said Janelle Guiney. “I thought they were going to hit it hard, but it went differently.”

South Beaverton took care of Medford in the semis. Then North Bend took care of South Beaverton behind a 14-strikeout performance from Guiney where she allowed just two baserunners.

At the team’s Tuesday afternoon practice at Stover Park, the players got a chance to work with Bend High’s Addisen Fisher.

Fisher, the nation’s top high school softball player who will soon be playing softball for UCLA, has been giving private lessons to several youth softball players, and was asked if she would want to help out with the team from time to time. It was an offer she could not pass up.

“I’ve been giving lessons for a long time,” Fisher said. “That is the goal for me, to help the younger generation of softball players, especially here in Central Oregon. This is a group of special girls who are talented in their own ways. As a whole they are a cohesive team, which is really awesome to see.”

Bend’s next generation of softball players will play Gastineau Channel Little League from Juneau, Alaska, on Saturday at 9 a.m. The games will be streamed live on ESPN+.