ROWLETT – The area's No. 2-ranked Class 5A team, Rowlett, had to come from behind in two very different games to win its bi-district series over Plano East.

Rowlett was two outs from being eliminated in Saturday's intense first game before rallying to a 7-6 win.

In a wild deciding game of the best-of-3 series, Rowlett trailed, 14-9, but came back for an 18-14 win.

"You could see by the score, it was going to take a touchdown to win it," Rowlett designated hitter Steven Cannon said.

Rowlett (29-1-2) had given up 10 runs in a game only once all season before Plano East (15-17-1) scored 10 in the top of the fourth in Game 3.

Rowlett responded with seven runs in the bottom of the inning, which took more than an hour to play. The rally gave Rowlett a 16-14 lead with three more innings to go.

"I said, 'Guys, 14 runs is not going to win this baseball game if we keep playing the way we're playing,' " Rowlett coach Paul Carmon said.

Rowlett had a 7-0 lead after two innings, but none of its first three pitchers could find a groove. Rowlett had not committed an error in the series before making three during Plano East's 10-run fourth.

Lefthander Steven Okert came on to get the final out of the marathon inning then allowed only one hit in the final three frames.

Plano East handed Rowlett its first loss of the season, 3-1, in Friday's Game 1. Despite an overall losing record, Plano East has defeated over five of the teams in the area Top 10 rankings.

Plano East looked poised to pull off a first-round upset when it led, 5-1, going into the bottom of the fifth of Game 2. Rowlett rallied by scoring two runs in each of the last three innings, including a pair of doubles in the seventh by Drew Mayhall and Andrew Johnson.

"I hope it says we just refuse to not win," Carmon said. "When we were down 5-1 in the first game, we just found a way."

Saturday's two games produced 45 runs, six homers and 14 doubles and took five hours and 20 minutes to complete.

"Those two games felt like five games," Rowlett outfielder Reed Graham said.