NACOGDOCHES -- Rudder's baptism in the UIL baseball playoffs can be summed up by one question -- what if?

After rain forced a change of location and a switch in format from a best-of-3 series to a single game, No. 3 Orangefield knocked the Rangers out of the playoffs with a 6-1 victory in the area round at Nacogdoches High School's Dragon Field on Saturday afternoon.

The victory put District 21-3A's Bobcats (25-2) into the regional quarterfinals, where they will play West Orange-Stark. Rudder, the 24-3A runner-up, finished its second season of varsity baseball at 22-7.

The Rangers outhit the Bobcats and had their opportunities, especially early, but found the going rough once they got on the basepaths.

Orangefield scored two runs in each of the first two innings and it appeared Rudder had an answer each time, but the Rangers hit into a double play to end the first and came up empty again after it looked as if they would have runners at first and second with no outs in the second.

"That's just baseball. They made good plays," Rudder coach James Ward said. "You give yourself a chance to win the game and we did that, we just came out on the short end, but the kids did an outstanding job."

Matt Fritsche opened the Rangers' half of the first by reaching on a slow roller to second. An out later Kyle Danford made it first and second for Rudder with the first of his two singles to left field.

Will Johnson then drilled a line drive right to second baseman Jonathan Deramus, who was playing toward the bag. Deramus made the catch at his knees, took a couple of steps and doubled off Fritsche, who had no chance to get back to second in time.

The Rangers were again unfortunate in the second inning after Austin Baron led off with walk. Matt Smith followed with a soft liner to right that dropped just in front of a charging Derrick Evans. Baron could only go halfway to second, not knowing if Evans would catch the ball, and was caught in no-man's land. Evans stopped charging the ball, took it on one hop and threw to second to get Baron.

Tim Deahl followed with an infield single, but Jace Statum (9-1) got out of the jam with two of his 10 strikeouts.

"Jace was tremendous on the hill," Orangefield coach Jeff Bennett said of his left-hander, who has 87 strikeouts on the season. "He came up with big pitches when he needed, and like we've done all year we came up with the big hit or play defensively to get out of some jams."

Fritsche lined to left to lead off the third, but Kyle Fontenot made a shoestring catch that Ward got a good look at from the third base coaching box and mildly questioned. Danford singled later in the inning but the Rangers were unable to put any more hits together.

Even in the inning the Rangers scored they were unlucky not to come away with more.

Baron led off the fourth with a single to left and went to third on Smith's single down the right-field line. Deahl then drove Evans back toward the fence for a long sacrifice fly to close the gap to 4-1.

Charleston Samuel pinch-ran for Smith, stole second and went to third when nobody was covering the bag.

With two outs, Matthew Voneiff pounded a ball into the dirt in front of catcher Jacob Felts. Statum jumped off the mound, bobbled the ball momentarily but recovered quickly and made a perfect flip to Felts to get Samuel.

"We hit the ball and that has always been our plus," Ward said. "At times we didn't make a play we needed to, but we were there in the game to the last inning and there is nothing wrong with that."

The Rangers, who outhit the Bobcats 7-6, pounded away into the final inning. Deahl walked to lead off the inning and Fritsche stroked the lone extra-base hit of the game, a double down the right-field line.

"We knew coming in that there were not going to be any easy outs, Jace knew that," Bennett said. "He didn't hit his spots on some pitches and that's what they got their hits on, but that's a good team over there."

Deahl may have been able to score on Fritsche's double, but there were two outs and it wasn't worth the risk of making the last out of the game.

Orangefield scored two runs on two hits in the first inning, with Quinton Evans' opposite-field single driving in Statum and Felts.

In the second, the Bobcats took advantage of an errant throw to first to score two, one on the throw and the second on a ground out by Statum.

Rudder starter Johnson (6-3) pitched four innings, throwing 58 pitches. He walked three, gave up three hits and struck out two.

The Bobcats, whose only losses came on the same day in the Lumberton tournament, also scored their final two runs on overthrows -- the first on an attempted pickoff at third and the second on a pickoff attempt at first of Statum, who had taken off to second early. Statum showed his speed, sprinting around the bases while Tyler Matcek chased down the errant throw in foul territory.

"Once that ball got through, man that guy is fast," Ward said. "He's going to go over and be an Aggie, and you can see why they recruited him because he's got an arm and he's got wheels."

The Rangers did make some stellar plays in the field, one on a shorthop by shortstop Voneiff and two by center fielder Baron. Baron doubled up Evans in the first inning after racing in to make a catch off the bat of Corey Huckabay. He then robbed Texas recruit Felts of extra bases by chasing down a fly ball at the fence in center.

"He is definitely a stud out there, a little man with a big heart," Ward said. "He does a lot of things well, just a great baseball player with an arm that makes plays."

The series was switched to one game after Friday's rain washed out the scheduled Game 1 at Baseball USA in Houston. The teams then had to change venues because of rain in Houston on Saturday.

Ward was disappointed the Rangers' season ended on the long weekend but was far from disappointed in the season itself.

"We had an outstanding year," Ward said. "They did everything we asked them to do to be successful and they were. Our slogan this year was 'One team, one dream and one goal.' We achieved the team, we achieved our goal to get to the playoffs and the dream was to get down to Austin and we knocked on the door, and that is all we can ask."

Orangefield 6, Rudder 1

Orangefield220 001 1 -- 6 6 2

Rudder 000 100 0 -- 1 7 4

Statum and Felts; Johnson, Kopetsky and Smith. W -- Statum (9-1), L -- Johnson (6-3). 2B -- Matt Fritsche.