NEDERLAND — Backs against the wall, Nederland’s offense clicked at the right time.

If it meant grinding out every single run to beat Dayton in the 5A bi-district round, that’s what it took.

“We’ve been grinders all year long,” Nederland coach Bryan Spell said. “I don’t know if anything got into us. We just played a little better and they didn’t have quite as good a guy they had on the mound that Wednesday night.”

The first guy from Dayton on the mound, Reese Miller, threw 16 shutouts in a 1-0 win that gave the Broncos the series advantage. Nederland (23-7-1) then won Games 2 and 3 by a combined 15-2 two days later to advance to the area round series against Galena Park.

“We realized that we didn’t play our brand of baseball,” Nederland first baseman Trenton Simon said. “Sixteen strikeouts is not doing that. We just shortened up the plate, put the ball in play and made them get us out, not get ourselves out.”

The Bulldogs showed more of their grit-and-grind identity in the pivotal Friday doubleheader at Barbers Hill. Junior Conner Kemp and senior Alan Underwood delivered back-to-back pitching gems, and the Bulldogs backed them up with a 4-0 shutout followed by a more explosive offense in Game 3.

“We’re not a team that’s going to hit a lot of home runs,” Spell said. “We’ve had our share of big extra-base hits. We’re a team that’s got to be able to hit-and-run and use the small game to score and continue to pitch and play great defense.”

The series victory carried some more significance for Nederland. It was the Bulldogs’ first time to advance in the postseason since 2013.

“Us group of seniors, we’ve been playing together since we were 7 or 8,” Simon said. “For us to break that drought, it’s a big deal for us. I feel like it’s a milestone for all of us seniors.”

A best-of-three win over Galena Park (17-8-3, 11-5 in 23-5A), which earned the second seed behind Santa Fe in the district after a three-way tie with Galveston Ball and Fort Bend Elkins, will put Nederland in its first regional quarterfinal since 2013 as well. Game 1 will begin at 5 p.m. Friday at The Ballpark in Crosby (behind Crosby High School, 333 Red Summit Drive), with Game 2 scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Barbers Hill High, the site of Nederland’s bi-district win. (Game 3, if needed, will immediately follow Game 2.)

“I know they beat an extremely tough Manvel team to get in [to the area round],” Spell said of Galena Park. “We’re very familiar with Manvel having played them the last few years in tournaments and knowing the quality of the team they always are. To be able to beat Manvel and to come out of the type of district they’ve come out of, we know they’re extremely scrappy.

“They do things right and we’ll have to do things right to win.”

The Bulldogs have never played in Crosby’s 1-year-old baseball digs, and they’ll give Mid-Countians a doubleheader with Port Neches-Groves playing Santa Fe in their Game 2 at 8 p.m.

“We’ll have tons of support from all across the community, not just from Nederland but from Port Neches as well,” Simon said.

If Nederland runs into trouble in either of the first two ballgames, Spell will count on the resilience his team has shown all season with their brand of baseball, no matter how hard they have to grind.

“Ain’t nothing has ever been pretty in Nederland, especially not this year,” Simon said. “We scrap out a bunch of wins with great pitching, great defense and timely hitting.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews