FORT WORTH – Tucker Butler is a tightly-wound ball of emotion on the baseball diamond, especially when the Wildcats’ No. 3 pitcher is on the mound.

And after getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning to earn the 4-3 win at Arlington Heights, that emotion came out in the form of tears.

The Wildcats (27-5) forced a third and decisive game in the Class 4A Region I quarterfinal series to be played today at 1 p.m. at Saginaw.

“Man, I’m real excited,” Butler said, still in tears. “We did a great job. My team gave me four runs of support, and once I got that I knew we’d win, no doubt.”

Butler said he found out he would pitch Game 2 after Thursday’s 9-1 defeat by the Yellowjackets (24-7), and he had a message for his teammates.

“I told the team that there’s no way I would lose this game,” Butler said. “I’m just so thankful that I got their run support, and we all executed.”

That run support began in the top of the second inning after Blake Gipson doubled to left-center field to lead off the inning.

Two batters later, freshman Cole Fiola turned on an inside pitch and drove it over the right field monster – a wall that stands about 40 feet tall – to give the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead on his second home run of the season.

“It just felt really good,” Fiola said. “I was just at the plate and hoping I’d get the pitch I wanted, and he threw it middle-in so I drove it.”

Guyer head coach Johnny Kinzy said Fiola’s blast was the hit he’d been waiting for since Thursday, when the Wildcats gave up some early home runs that gave the Yellowjackets the momentum en route to the Game 1 win.

“I talked to them before the game and said they [Arlington Heights] got the early hits and momentum on Thursday,” Kinzy said. “That was the big hit that we didn’t get on Thursday. We were able to get the momentum and keep it with that hit.”

Butler (3-2), who was the No. 2 pitcher last season before being moved to primarily shortstop this year, picked up a crucial save in Guyer’s bi-district clinching win over Saginaw Boswell last week.

He had a no-hitter working through 3 1-3 innings before Mark Grace doubled to start a rally that cut Guyer’s lead in half. It was the only Yellowjacket hit that left the infield.

Butler had to overcome four errors by his defense and got out of two bases-loaded situations. In the fourth, a double play started by Alex Luna with a great play on his knees got Guyer out of jam. Then in the seventh, he got his sixth strikeout of the night and a ground out to Luna.

Kinzy said he was proud of the way Butler and his teammates fought through the mistakes as all three Arlington Heights runs were unearned.

“That was a very intense game, and everyone will make mistakes, but it’s what you do after those mistakes that shows what the team is,” Kinzy said. “They overcame the adversity, and we won the game.”

The Wildcats got their third and fourth runs in the top of the fourth inning after Gipson was hit by a pitch and K.J. Alexander singled to right field but advanced to second on an error, putting runners on second and third with one out.

Fiola stepped to the plate and hit a sharp grounder to second for the second out but got the RBI as Gipson scored.

The next batter, designated hitter Greg Kennon, hit a sharp single in his first postseason start to score Alexander.

After putting up such a disappointing performance on Thursday night, Kinzy said he’s excited to see what team shows up in today’s Game 3, especially after the resiliency Guyer showed on Friday night.

The Yellowjackets will start their ace, David Shipman, and the conventional thought would be that Guyer will start ace Brad Kottman, who is 12-0 on the year but threw 114 pitches on Tuesday night in the area-round win over Granbury. Kinzy wouldn’t say who was going to get the start on the hill.

“It’s a good position to be in,” Kinzy said. “It’ll be exciting because we didn’t play anything close to what we’re capable of on Thursday. It shows a lot about these kids to come back and play well and play their tails off like they did tonight.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.

Guyer 4, Fort Worth Arlington Heights 3

Guyer   020      200      0          --         4          6          4

Arl. Heights      000      210      0          --         3          4          1

WP – Tucker Butler (3-2). LP – Mark Grace. 2B – G: Colby Walding, Blake Gipson. AH: Mark Grace. HR – G: Cole Fiola