For the second night in a row, the Buchholz Bobcats came down to the wire against the Tate (Cantonment) Aggies in their 6A Region 1 Semifinal series.

And for the second night in a row, Buchholz scored in their final at-bat to edge the Aggies.

JJ Gardner lined a single to left field to drive in Hudson Sapp in the bottom of the seventh as the Bobcats walked off against Tate, 3-2, and took the best-of-three region semifinal series in two games.

No. 1 seed Buchholz (30-1) will host second-seed Pace in the regional final round with game one next Wednesday. The winner between Buchholz and Pace advances to the 6A state semifinals in Fort Myers.

Buchholz took game one on Wednesday night, 3-2, with Sapp delivering the game-winning single in the bottom of the sixth.  

On Thursday, Buchholz scored right away in the first inning. Kai So was hit by a pitch as the leadoff batter, and, with one out, courtesy runner Justin Williams scored on an RBI single by Cedaris Smith for a 1-0 lead.

Tate (16-14) tied the game in the third against Gardner. With two outs, Nathan Ozuna delivered a one-run single to make it 1-1.  

Gardner, pitching for the first time in three weeks, allowed three hits and a run in three innings with four strikeouts.

“It was really important for (Gardner) to go today, toe the rubber and give us three strong innings,” Buchholz coach Ron Brooks said. “We are in the playoffs, but it was important to watch his pitch count, because we want to have pitching lined up.”

Junior Cohen Lafler entered in the fourth in relief for Buchholz and struck out five in the next three innings.

“Cohen was awesome tonight,” Brooks said. “If I were hitting against him, the amount of guessing you have to do because he throws three pitches for strikes and they are very, very quality.”

Buchholz finally broke the tie in the bottom of the sixth, with Blake Brewer singling in Smith for a 2-1 lead.

Senior closer Wyatt Clarke entered the seventh trying to finish the Aggies off, but Hunter Clayton led off the inning with a single and, after pinch runner Cannon Hamm stole second and went to third on a wild pitch, Connor Dethlefs delivered a sacrifice fly to again tie the game.

In the bottom half of the seventh, Sapp singled to lead off, was balked to second by Connors, and stole third with one out. Buchholz then loaded the bases, and Gardner delivered his single to left field for the win.

“I was impressed with their (Tate’s) overall toughness and how they battled, so give them a lot of credit for putting us to the test,” Brooks said. “But give our guys a lot of credit. I was really proud of the way we fought and the way and got the job done.”

FHSAA Baseball state playoffs (Best-of-3)

(Teams in the Mainstreet coverage area in bold)

Class 3A-Region 1 Semifinals

Game 1 – Monday, April 28
3 Suwannee (Live Oak) 4, 2 West Florida (Pensacola) 2

Game 2 – Tuesday, April 29

2 West Florida (Pensacola) 9, 3 Suwannee (Live Oak) 8

Game 3 – Thursday, May 1

3 Suwannee (Live Oak) 7, 2 West Florida (Pensacola) 0– Suwannee (23-8) wins series 2-1

Class 5A-Region 1 Semifinals

Game 1 – Wednesday, April 30

1 Niceville 2, 5 Columbia (Lake City) 1

Game 2 – Thursday, May 1

1 Niceville, 7, 5 Columbia (Lake City) 3 – Niceville (27-4) wins series 2-0

Class 6A-Region1 Semifinals

Game 1 – Wednesday, April 30

1 Buchholz 3, 4 Tate (Cantonment) 2

Game 2 – Thursday, May 1

1 Buchholz 3, 4 Tate (Cantonment) 2 – Buchholz (30-1) wins series 2-0