Countryside High Falls in Regional Baseball Playoff Game to Wiregrass Ranch (VIDEO)

The Countryside High School baseball team once again failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs, dropping a 5-2 decision to Wiregrass Ranch in a regional quarterfinal game played at home on Saturday afternoon.

Wiregrass Ranch scored two runs in the top of the first inning off Countryside starter Jake Mielock, thanks to a two-out error by Cougars shortstop Charlie Skantze.

But the Cougars tied the game in the bottom of the first, chasing Bulls starter Zach Drury from the game, and had a chance to take the lead with the bases loaded with only one out. Unfortunately for Countryside, they couldn't get another run across, and it wound up costing them the game.

"We always talk about getting that big hit but we didn't get it, we just didn't get it," Cougars head coach Kemo O'Sullivan said later.

Drury bounced back after being replaced on the mound by his younger brother, Austin, to hit a big two-out, two-RBI single in the second inning to give Wiregrass Ranch (18-9) a 4-2 lead it would never relinquish.

"I was a little bit shaky coming in, but I knew our defense could get the job done and get us out of there," Austin Drury said afterwards. 

Bulls head coach Jeff Swymer said the victory, the first playoff win in the program's history, was a big one for his young team.

"It's huge. To me I think it can change the culture of a program," Swymer said after the game.

"You beat a good program like Countryside with some good tradition, it's gonna help our program down the road next year. So it's huge for us."

On the other side of the field, O'Sullivan was left to lament another tough late season loss and ponder what might have been. Countryside also lost in the first round of the regionals in 2011.

"Maybe we we're a little flat, we didn't seem to have that bounce," he said.

"We thought we could compete with this team, and we had a chance in the first inning to really do some damage. But that's baseball. I'm proud of this team."

Wiregrass Ranch will play the winner of the Steinbrenner and Seminole game next week.

Countryside finished the season with a 17-11 record.

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