The West Lincoln Bears bounced back Saturday to keep their season alive, defeating the Mize Bulldogs 6-2 in the second game of a best-of-three series in the first round of the Class 2A state baseball playoffs.

“We played a lot better game defensively today, along with a great pitching performance from Daniel Spears,” said West Lincoln coach David Gilbert. “Spears kept them off balance all day and our hitters did a good job of getting him an early lead. We have to be ready to take the next step in our program and that starts with a win on Monday.”

The Bears will travel to Mize Monday for the third game, starting at 7 p.m.

West Lincoln 6, Mize 2 

The Bears scored four runs in the first inning, sparked by a two-run single by Seth Bivens, a groundout by Nathanael Addison and a RBI single by Dillon Griffin.

West Lincoln tacked on two more runs in the second inning.

Mize scored its only two runs of the contest in the top of the sixth.

Daniel Spears looked sharp on the rubber for West Lincoln as he allowed only one hit while giving up two earned runs and five walks. He struck out six batters during his seven innings of work.

Seth Bivens, Brady Thompson, Dillon Griffin and Gavin Burris powered the Bears’ offense with a single each.

Mize 9, West Lincoln 8 

Mize rallied back to steal the first game from the West Lincoln Friday night, outscoring the Bears 4-1 in the final two innings to win 9-8.

“We suffered a tough loss tonight,” said Gilbert. “I feel like we were the better team but we played a sloppy game defensively and Mize took advantage. We knew coming in that they were a scrappy team that would take advantage of mistakes and that is exactly what they did.

that,” said Gilbert. “We have to give credit to their pitcher, he really settled in after the third inning and threw his breaking ball very well. Although we battled back to tie the game in the seventh, we let another error beat us with two outs. It is the playoffs, and we cannot expect to win making four costly errors.”

Both teams kicked off the first inning scoring one run each, but Mize managed to add two runs in the bottom of the second to take a 3-1 lead.

West Lincoln quickly responded in the top of the third with a six-run explosion.

The Bulldogs would plate one run each in the bottom of the third and fourth innings to cut into the Bears’ lead at 7-5. Mize scored three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Bears would tie the game at 8-8 in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh, the Bulldogs punch in the game-winning run to steal the win.

Seth Bivens suffered the setback on the mound for West Lincoln with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Gabe Nations was the top hitter for the Bears’ offense with a homerun and a single. Brady Thompson and Seth Bivens contributed two singles each. Kylar Fielder, Lofton Sills, Nathanael Addison, Dillon Griffin and Gavin Burris hit a single each.