Bullard vs. Carthage in a Class 4A Region III quarterfinal Game 2 Saturday at Bullard. (Michel Alfaro/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

BULLARD — Bullard is headed to the regional semifinals in baseball for the first time since 2004 after completing a sweep of Carthage with a 7-1 victory in Game 2 of a Class 4A Region III quarterfinal series Saturday at the Panther Athletic Complex.

“I’ve been with this program for four years, and we’ve never made it past the third round,” senior Chase Randall said. “We all decided to go buzz and bleach this year and change things up, and it worked out for the better. We’re all doing amazing in practice and just caring about this team a lot.

“We really needed this. With me being a senior, we really needed this because I’m gone next year, and I really want to make a deep run this year.”

Since 2005, Bullard had been to the third round seven times, including all of the previous three years, losing to Carthage in the third round in both 2005 and 2023.

Next up for No. 17 Bullard (31-6-2), which took a 6-0 win at No. 18 Carthage on Friday, is a meeting with No. 2 China Spring (30-5).

It was a master class in efficiency for Bullard sophomore Kage Korenek. In the first five innings, Korenek didn’t throw more than nine pitches in an inning, totaling just 42 pitches with a two-hit shutout through five innings. He threw 11 pitches in the sixth and 19 in the seventh when Carthage was able to get on the board with a two-out RBI double by Brooks Soape. Korenek then got Ty Chambers to pop up to end the game.

“We had a good approach at the plate offensively,” Bullard head baseball coach Robert Ellis said. “We just had good at-bats, plain and simple. What got us those at-bats is Kage Korenek, the kid I had pitching. He was eight or nine pitches an inning, getting us back in there on offense.

“That is huge for offensive rhythm. We didn’t have any long innings. The last inning was the longest inning. That was the first time he had a three-ball count the whole day. That was huge.”

Korenek allowed one run on four hits with two strikeouts, no walks and 72 pitches in seven innings.

“Just Kage Korenek being so efficient on the mound and then we bunted and had timely hits,” Randall said. “Everyone is just hitting right now. That’s what you need to win a ball game.”

Offensively, the Panthers got a one-out triple from Dylan Malone, and he scored on a groundout by David Wilson to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

The Panthers sent 10 hitters to the plate in the third inning, scoring five runs on three hits. Chase Randall had an RBI single. Jachin Salas had an RBI sacrifice fly. Dylan Fowler had an RBI single. Ty Rigsby had an RBI double.

Bullard’s final run came in the sixth inning with an RBI single by Randall.

Malone was 3-for-3. Randall, Fowler and Rigsby had two hits, an Reed Overbeek added a double.

Cade Moore led Carthage (23-11-2) with two hits.

Matthew Smith allowed five runs on five hits with one walk in two innings. Cade Ross allowed two runs — one earned — on five hits with two walks in 3.1 innings. Alex Welk retired the two batters he faced.

The Bulldog pitching staff didn’t record a strikeout on the Panther offense in the contest.

Bullard, which had zero errors, had defensive gems from Rigsby, Jackson Holt, Randall and Fowler.

Bullard will open its series with China Spring Thursday at China Spring with a time to be determined. Bullard will host Game 2 at 5 p.m. Saturday, and Game 3 will follow, if necessary.