Photo by Holly Netzley Milroy outfielder Tyler Maeyaert hits a pitch during the Milroy Irish’s second-round series opener against Jackson at the Milroy Irish yard on Wednesday night.

JACKSON — The No. 3 Milroy Irish’s season came to an end Friday night when an eighth-inning RBI single gave No. 6 Jackson a 2-1 series-clinching win in the Region 13C playoffs.

“We ran into a team that had a lot of energy. Got to give them some credit. They played baseball, they hit the ball, they made the plays,” Milroy manager Anthony Dolan said. “You look at a game like tonight, the difference? We had some hard-hit balls, we had some choppers to short and they made great plays. You tip your cap a little bit. Our bats were a little slow, but that’s baseball too. That’s kind of how it goes.”

After seven errors in the first game of the series resulted in a 17-0 Milroy loss, luck was with the Irish to start game two. The Bulls committed three errors in the first inning and Milroy capitalized to take an early 1-0 lead.

Following a leadoff pop out, Tyler Maeyaert reached base on an error by the Jackson second baseman. He stole second and went on to score on another error to put the Irish on the board.

“We put up a one-spot at the top of the first, that’s great momentum for us to kind of take that monkey off the back right away,” Dolan said. “We had other opportunities in the game and just couldn’t capitalize, but scoring early, that’s always a good thing to do.”

Tyler Peterson started on the mound for Milroy and pitched the first 7 1/3 innings and threw five strikeouts. He also held the Bulls hitless through the first three frames.

“Our veteran through great. He pounded strikes all day, kept them off balance and he did great for us, he really did,” Dolan said of Peterson.

Jackson was poised to shift all momentum in its favor in the fourth inning when it loaded the bases with no outs on a pair of singles and a walk. A single by the next batter tied the game. Peterson then got a strikeout and a line out to center field followed by a throw out at the plate on the tag-up attempt got the Irish out of the jam.

Peterson got a walk to put the tying run on first in the ninth inning, but it came sandwiched between a pair of strikeouts. He stole second to get in scoring position but a ground out sealed the Irish’s fate.

Derek Smith pitched the final 2/3 innings for Milroy.

Jackson got the winning run in the eighth inning. Their leadoff batter hit a single and went on to score on an error.

Milroy finishes its season at 14-8. The Irish lost some players following last year’s 29-7 state tournament appearance, but still battled to finish second in the Gopher League and earn a first-round bye in the region tournament.

“You never want to end on a loss like this, but this was a successful year,” Dolan said. “Depends how you define success. That you had a great record, we battled all year. This was, even though we didn’t get to state, it was a successful year. I’m very proud of our guys.

“We battled all year and it’s tough to lose the amount of guys we did, but we had guys step up and that’s baseball.”