Johnson's Cody Dulap's big day started with a triple off the left field fence in game 2 vs South San

The Johnson Jaguars advanced to the third round of the UIL 5A playoffs last Saturday by taking down South San in game three of a three game series. After taking game one one Friday 4-0 the Jags felt they had the series in hand, but after trailing for 13 innings on Saturday over two games the Jags finaly took the lead when it counted.

Game two, like game one, had few hits and Johnson starting pitcher Tyler Day did enough on the mound to deserve a win but the Jaguars could not muster the run support. Day pitched seven strong innings scattering 6 hits, striking out 4 and walking none.

The two runs in the first inning South San Scored were both unearned as Johnson made two errors in the inning. Two runs was all South San Would need.

With the Johnson bats cold the game would end 2-1 in favor of the Bobcats. Johnson’s only run came in the second inning when Cody Dunlap tripled to left field and Tanner Wall drove him home with a double.

South San’s starting pitcher went the full seven innings and came out to start the third game. After four innings in the third and deciding game the game got a little strange. South San was already leading 3-1 at the time.

UIL has a little know rule that states “A pitcher may pitch one game each day in an unlimited number of innings. If he pitches in more than one game during a day, he will be limited to a total of ten innings each day.” http://www.uiltexas.org/files/athletics/manuals/BA4-RegularSeasonRegs.pdf

When Coach Gesell made the umpires aware of the rule in the 4th inning of the third game and after a long delay the Bobcats replaced their starting pitcher and the 4th inning was replayed. The Jags scored a run in the replayed 4th inning cutting the lead to 2-3.

South San would add a run in the sixth inning extending their lead to 2-4 over Johnson and the Jags with just six outs to work with.

In the bottom of the sixth inning with Zach Hammer and Nick Mireles already on base Jojo Collazo blooped a single into shallow center field that confused the South San fielders over who would catch the ball. With Mireles already home Hammer broke from third to the plate and scored on a play at the plate sliding under a tag to tie up the game.

In the bottom of the seventh Connor Roy got on base with a swinging bunt attempt where he hustled out the infield hit. Keaton Bohrmann bunted Roy to second. Needing a force play and with just one out South San walked Connor Gesell to face Cody Dunlap. Dunlap had already tripled in game two and doubled earlier in game three.

Dunlap sent a ball deep to the center field fence driving home Hunter Rittimann, running for Roy, to win the game 5-4 for the Jags.

The victory moves Johnson into the third round of the UIL playoffs for the first time in school history. Matt Chapa, game 1 winner, picked up the win in relief in game 3 for Johnson.

The Jags will face Corpus Christi Carroll this weekend in a three game series. More will be posted Thursday afternoon about this series with Carroll including directions and start times for Friday and Saturday.

Go Jags!!