ON TO STATE: The Woodlands outlasts Rockwall

UPDATE: The Woodlands will play Northside O'Connor at 3 p.m. Friday at Dell Diamond in the 5A state semifinals. The state championship game is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

AUSTIN, Texas – The Woodlands High School baseball team needed two innings to win two of three games from Rockwall and win the Region II-5A championship.

The Highlanders scored 12 runs in the sixth inning to win the first game of the series, 12-5, on Friday and tallied seven runs in the third inning Saturday to win 12-6 in the third and deciding game at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.

Throw in an incredible relief effort from winning pitcher Brandon Miles, who shut out the Yellow Jackets over the final four innings of a five-inning stint, and The Woodlands (36-4) is headed to the state tournament for the third time since 2000.

The Woodlands joins Dulles, San Antonio O’Connor and Arlington Martin at the UIL Class 5A State Baseball Championships, which are set for Friday and Saturday, June 7-8, at Dell Diamond. Semifinals games are set for noon and 3 p.m. Friday with the state championship game slated for 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

"Proud of all my brothers this weekend," tweeted senior catcher Alex Dunlap, who is headed to Stanford in the fall. "Amazed at the heart of my team, quitting isn't an option. Going to state is."

The Highlanders wasted little time getting on the boards in the first inning of Saturday’s third and deciding game. Dunlap (3 hits, 3 RBI) laced a double to left field, chasing home Hillin Warren (2 hits), who opened the inning with a single.

Rockwall (34-9) answered with a three-run second and three-run third innings to take a 6-1 lead.

But the Highlanders produced another big inning that made the difference. Dunlap delivered again with a two-run double in the bottom of the third, which followed a solo homer by Kolbi Brown, to bring The Woodlands to within 6-4. Josh Shaw (2 RBI) drew a bases-loaded walk before Carter Hope lifted a sacrifice fly that tied the game 6-6.

Luke Sherley (2 hits, 3 RBI) came through with a two-out, two-run single to complete the rally and give the Highlanders an 8-6 lead they never relinquished.

Dunlap and Chris Andritsos (3 hits, 2 RBI) started a fourth-inning rally with consecutive one-out singles. Shaw dumped an RBI-single to right field to increase the Highlanders’ lead to 9-6.

Andritsos was clutch in the fifth inning, lining a two-out, two-run single and The Woodlands’ lead was 11-6 after five innings. Sherley added an insurance run in the sixth inning with a two-out single, scoring Brown, who preceded it with a triple.

Hope, The Woodlands’ Game 2 starter, had not allowed an earned run this postseason in 20 playoff innings of work. But Rockwall made maximum use of seven hits over Hope’s five innings of work (four strikeouts) to score seven runs – six earned – and claim a 7-1 win, forcing the third and deciding game.

Braxton Markle threw two innings of no-hit relief in Game 2, striking out one and walking one.

The Woodlands equaled the Yellow Jackets’ Game 2 hit total (7) but most came with two outs and the Highlanders couldn’t string them together. Shaw (1-for-3) drove in the only run for The Woodlands.

Andritsos came up with two hits while Warren, Blaine Gillespie, Brown and Sherley added one apiece.