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CORPUS CHRISTI — Sharyland Pioneer took a two-run lead into the bottom of the seventh inning before the Buda Johnson Jaguars rallied with three runs for a 5-4 victory in Game 2 of their Region IV-5A semifinal series Friday at Cabaniss Athletic Complex.
A deciding Game 3 is scheduled for noon today at Cabaniss Athletic Complex after Pioneer won Game 1 11-2 on Thursday.
“We had a plan going into the game, but if you look at the scoreboard tonight, we didn’t adjust. It took us way too long to adjust; that kind of hurt us a little bit,” Pioneer head coach Shawn Moes said. “Ruben (Lopez) really pitched well tonight. There at the end they got some balls to fall and that’s baseball.”
Buda Johnson (25-11-1) sent its ace Cody Templeton to the mound for a must-win Game 2, while Pioneer (31-8) trotted out freshman right-handed pitcher Ruben Lopez. Both pitchers had their moments, but it was the Jaguars’ bats that got the job done during the bottom of the seventh.
After a walk, Johnson’s Logan Robinson and Ethan McLain hit back-to-back RBI singles with two outs. That set up a walk-off double by Templeton to win the game.
Pioneer scored three runs during the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. Senior shortstop Juan Rivera doubled to right field to bring in Fernie Morales and Stevie Quintanilla. Senior third baseman Oscar Serna then doubled to score Rivera.
A solo home run from McLain sliced Pioneer’s lead in half during the bottom of the sixth. The Diamondbacks pushed their advantage back to two runs after an Angel Larrañaga RBI during the top of the seventh.
The Diamondbacks recorded 11 hits with two apiece coming from Larrañaga, Quintanilla and Joshua Benitez. Rivera finished 1-for-4 with two RBIs. Lopez pitched 6.2 innings allowing eight hits, one walk and four earned runs while striking out six.
Now, Pioneer and Buda Johnson are scheduled for seven innings today to decide which team advances to the Region IV-5A final. The winner will face Georgetown (30-7) in the Elite Eight.
The Diamondbacks are no strangers to Game 3 scenarios, however. They’ve won two Games 3s already this postseason against Corpus Christi Moody and Corpus Christi Veterans.
“It’s the same message it’s been the last two weeks after Game 2 — we got punched in the mouth, tomorrow be ready to go,” Moes said. “They’re going to be ready to go. We just got to flush what just happened, let the bad things go, let the bad taste in our mouth go and be ready to go tomorrow.”
