The Buchholz Bobcats faced an elimination game on Thursday night, something they haven’t seen a lot of in the past three seasons.

And after getting thumped by visiting Pace in Game 1 of the 6A Region 1 Finals on Wednesday night, Buchholz found themselves in a 2-2 tie going into the bottom of the fifth of Game 2.

JJ Gardner’s two-run homer broke the tie, and the Bobcats scored nine runs in the fifth and sixth innings to pull away for an 11-2 win and even the best-of-three series at a game apiece.

Both teams will travel to the Panhandle for the third and final game of the series at 3 p.m. EST (2 p.m. CST) on Saturday, and the winner will advance to the 6A state semifinals at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers next Friday.

For the second game in a row, Pace (25-5) got on the board in the second inning with a 1-0 lead. But it wasn’t the seven-run explosion the Patriots had on Wednesday night in Game 1, as Buchholz starter Cohan Lafler limited the damage.

Buchholz (31-2) came back in the bottom of the third and took a 2-1 lead. Roen Kresak singled in Hudson Sapp for the first run, and Kai So followed with a one-run double to give the Bobcats the lead.

Pace tied the game at 2-2 on a bases-loaded walk in the fourth, and the score remained tied until the bottom of the fifth.

And that’s when the Buchholz bats woke up.

“Last night (Game 1) was a distant memory, which was good,” Buchholz coach Ron Brooks said. “You’ve got to have a short memory, and when we fell behind 1-0, we didn’t let it phase us.”

So started the decisive fifth with his second single of the game, and then Gardner hit his two-run homer for a 4-2 lead. Cedaris Smith, Blake Brewer and Aiden Kastensmidt all followed with singles to load the bases. With two outs, Stuart Ding walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-2, and Kresak followed with a two-run single to center and a 7-2 advantage.

“That hit parade was nice, it definitely gives you some confidence,” Brooks said. “We really needed a game that gave us some confidence tonight after last night, so it was great to come out and get that both on the mound and offensively. That could bode well for us on Saturday.”

After sending 10 batters to the plate in the fifth, Buchholz batted around in the sixth and scored four more runs. The first seven Bobcats batters reached, as Kastensmidt, Zac Brown, Sapp and Ding drove in runs.

Wyatt Clarke picked up the win for Buchholz with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.

“We haven’t been on the road in a while, but we will take the long bus ride and enjoy being around each other,” Brooks said. “It should be fun, and it’s a great atmosphere over there (at Pace).”