LAREDO — PSJA High gave the eighth-ranked team in Class 6A, San Antonio Johnson, all it could handle in all three games of their Region IV-6A semifinal series, but the Bears ran out of gas in the deciding Game 3, falling 8-5 on Friday at Veterans Field in Laredo.
PSJA High’s season ends at 28-10 overall with the program’s first regional semifinal appearance since 2004. San Antonio Johnson (33-5-2) moves on to face Austin Westlake in the Region IV-6A final next week.
“We had opportunities. I just love the way my kids battled — they battled back to the very end,” PSJA High head coach Marco Guajardo said. “They never gave up. We had opportunities, we left runners on base with nobody out and that was a big turning point of that game right there. That hurt us, but it’s baseball. I told the kids not to dwell on any negative. Just the fact that we were here is a big success, so I’m proud of them and what they did to battle all the way through.”
The Bears led the Jaguars 5-3 entering the bottom of the fifth before costly mistakes turned the tides. Three hits, three errors and a hit batter led to a five-run fifth inning and an 8-5 lead for San Antonio Johnson.
During the top half of the fifth, PSJA put runners on second and third with one out but ended the frame with no runs. A diving catch in left field by San Antonio Johnson for out No. 3 gave the Jaguars some momentum, and they took full advantage in the bottom half of the inning.
PSJA High’s scoring came on a Jaime Lopez two-run home run during the top of the second to give the Bears a 2-1 lead.
PSJA plated two more runs during the third after back-to-back singles by Charlie Zamaripa and Julius Ramirez led to errors at shortstop and third base off ground balls by Vinny Cano and Diego Gomez to make it 4-2 in favor of PSJA. Lopez then led off the top of the fourth with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and took third on a wild pitch before a Jai Arenas base hit brought him home for a 5-3 Bears lead.
In Game 2, the Jaguars jumped on the Bears with a 4-0 lead before a Diego Gomez two-run homer cut the lead in half. It wasn’t enough, however, as the Bears dropped the middle game of the series 4-2 to force Game 3. PSJA won Game 1 on Thursday, 5-4.
PSJA High finishes the year as District 31-6A co-champions with three playoff series wins led by a strong senior group that helped continue the winning tradition, setting up the underclassmen to carry it on.
“Those guys are going to be real tough to replace. They brought us a long ways and hit the ball all year long,” Guajardo said. “They’ve done a tremendous job. I like the way they took the leadership role, and taught the younger guys what to do and gave them a great experience. I challenged the younger guys to follow their footsteps. They’re going to be hard to replace, but the younger ones will step it up and keep it going the next few years.”