CHANUTE, Kansas — Sophomore Drew Scrimsher flew out of the Cloud County Community College dugout Saturday, ecstatically pumping his fist like Tiger Woods at the 2005 Masters, seconds after the final out in the T-Birds' victory over Neosho County Community College — a shallow fly out induced by freshman pitcher Patrick Rosborough — settled into the glove of right-fielder, Trae McDaniel.

There was no masking the joy during the team handshake line as Cloud County kept its season alive by winning, 5-3, in Game Two of the Region VI Playoffs series against the Panthers. The victory evened the best of three set against Neosho County and was the first Region VI Playoff win for the T-Birds program since 2006.

Cloud County (28-30 overall) and Neosho County (38-20 overall) will battle for the coveted bus trip to Wichita — site of next weekend's NJCAA Central District Region VI Baseball Tournament final rounds — at 1 p.m. on Sunday in the series finale.

"I don't know if I've ever been more proud of these guys," said Cloud County head coach, Eric Gilliland, who was a member of that 2006 T-Birds team. "We had our backs against the wall and they refused to give in and roll over. We got some gutsy pitching on the mound, some guys stepped up offensively for us, and it was a really good win. We live to see another day and we're excited to get back after it (Sunday)."

Saturday's game got off to a familiar start for the T-Birds as they took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning on the first of two, two-run home runs by freshman third baseman, Tauren Langley.

Neosho County, as it did in Friday's game after Cloud jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a Kolton Meyer first-inning homer, answered back with two runs in the bottom of the second to tie the score.

The Panthers went on to win Friday's game, 11-4. But on Saturday, T-Birds' pitching was able to stop the bleeding behind a gritty start from sophomore John Stiger and three strong innings of relief from Rosborough.

"It (Saturday's game) played out really similar to Friday's game. But John was able to pitch his way out of jams that we couldn't get out of yesterday," Gilliland said. "He was in and out of jams all day and Patrick was in and out of jams all day. But they kept making big pitches with guys on base."

Stiger went six innings. The left-hander allowed just the two second inning runs and limited the Panthers to six hits while striking out seven.

Rosborough (5-7) picked up the win after tossing three innings, allowing one run on four hits and posting four strikeouts. It was just his third time pitching as a reliever this season in 15 appearances, but second time in the past week as he threw five strong innings in a 7-2 win over No. 18 ranked Barton on May 1.

"Patrick pitched in relief on Monday and that was almost a good test run for today," Gilliland said. "We planned on starting him in Game Three and had we won Friday, we'd have saved him. But with the season on the line, we decided to go to him and I thought we needed 3-4 good innings from him to win today."

As Stiger and Rosborough threw up zeros, the Cloud County offense broke up the 2-2 tie in the seventh with a two-out, three-run rally created by the middle of the T-Birds' batting order. 

Freshman outfielder Enrique Gonzalez, who was 3-for-4 with two runs scored, started it off with a double. Meyer singled home Gonzalez and scored one batter later on another rocket off the bat of Langley, giving the T-Birds a 5-2 lead and Langley his second two-run home run of the day.

Langley entered Saturday second on the team with eight homers on the season, but hadn't hit one since April 14.

"Tauren had been on a little bit of a skid and we'd been needing this from him," Gilliland said. "We always seem to play well when Tauren plays well and he got ahold of a couple of pitches today. And another guy who kind of changes us offensively is Enrique. It's never been a question of whether he could. He's changed the way he goes about things a little bit lately and he's a great, talented baseball player."

All hands will be on deck at 1 p.m. Sunday as Cloud County and Neosho County square off in Game Three for the right to keep playing down in Wichita.

"I don't have to tell this group anything at this point," Gilliland said. "I don't doubt that they'll be here (Sunday) foaming at the mouth and ready to go. Early on with a young team, we battled a lot with them. But there is no magical speech for tomorrow. It's 'you win or go home. And if we win, we're going to Wichita, so let's make it there and do something special.'"