The one they call Mo made sure there was no doubt.

Ben "Mo" Blackwell bashed a grand slam home run for the Tar Heel All-Star baseball team in the fourth inning, and Tar Heel went on for a 15-3 win over North State in the North Carolina District IV 11-year-old Little League tournament Wednesday at Elm Street Park.

Jenni Farrow/The Daily Reflector (ENLARGE)

Tar Heel All-Stars celebrate as they take the lead from the North State All-Stars during the District IV 11-year-old Little League tournament at Elm Street Park on Wednesday.

Tar Heel's victory forced a winner-take-all game for the district title which will be played tonight at 5:30.

"Ever since our first loss on Saturday (to North State in the first round), we've talked about taking it one game at a time," TH coach John Hallow said. "North State's a good baseball team, and I hope we come out tomorrow and play as well as we did tonight."

Tar Heel took an early lead, but North State swiped it back in the third. Tar Heel miscues aided in the temporary comeback effort.

With Ashley Weingartz on third, an errant throw to the Tar Heel second baseman allowed Weingartz to zip home. She narrowly slid under a tag to knot the game at 1.

A wild pitch led to North State's first lead of the game, and Addison Taylor hit a single that scored Jordan Bryant for a 3-1 NS lead.

Tar Heel immediately jumped back on top.

A bases-loaded walk issued to Brisen Koch notched the first run in the Tar Heel fifth. Tre Stafford followed with a sacrifice fly to even the score. Later in the inning, another bases-loaded walk gave Tar Heel its final lead.

Blackwell's grand slam served as the final blow in the seven-run frame.

"The swing just felt like any other swing," said Blackwell, who added that it was a fastball he hit over the wall in left-center field. "But I knew (it was a home run) as soon as I hit it."

The momentum didn't stop in the fifth, as seven more Tar Heel runs made the task of a comeback seemingly impossible.

"Tar Heel showed up and played baseball, and we were just not ready to play," North State coach Tommy Walston said. "We're going to have to come back and play better. I can't take anything away from Tar Heel, they played a great game."

As the two Greenville-based teams are set to square off again today, it's similar to the situation of last year's district tournament final.

North State was sent to the losers' bracket early in 2007, and Tar Heel stormed through the winners' rounds.

"We were in this position last year," said Blackwell, who was on the Tar Heel team as well last year. "We were in the winners' bracket, and they came out and beat us bad."

North State took last season's district title with back-to-back wins over Tar Heel. Hallow said he wouldn't mind a reversal of fortunes for this year's title game.

"Yeah, that would be real nice," the Tar Heel coach said.

John Swartz can be reached at jswartz@coxnc.com or (252) 329-9592.

Tar Heel 15, North State 3

Tar Heel...100 77—15 14 0

North State...003 00—3 7 1

WP — Ryan McGill; LP — Addison Taylor.

Leading hitters: TH — Ryan McGill 203, Ben Blackwell 2-3 (5 RBIs, HR), Brent Carter 1-2, Rob McCarthy 2-4, Jeffrey Gough 3-3, Jeffrey Spence 1-2, Johny Hallow 1-3, Tre Stafford 1-2; NS — Addison Taylor 2-3, Ashley Weingartz 1-1, Frankie Williamson 2-3, Blake Rogers 1-2, Remigio Devante 1-1.