MONTEREY — After having a bye in the bi-district round for being the No. 1 seed, Monterey High School’s baseball team returned to the field for the first time in nearly two weeks to take on a team that gave the Wolves one of their three in-state losses during the regular season — No. 17 seed Holden High School.

On March 29, the Rockets upset the Wolves 12-2 at Holden. The rematch was a better game, but the final score was perhaps closer than expected as Monterey held on for a 10-8 win over Holden Tuesday afternoon in the regional round of the LHSAA Class B Playoffs.

“Holden was a good team. Much better than their (No.) 17 seed,” Monterey head coach Eric Richard said. “We might have been a little flat, but that’s no excuse. For the first two innings, they were a much better team than us.”

Kade Passman got the start for Monterey, but his appearance on the mound did not last very long. He allowed four runs, two earned, on four hits with one strikeout and one walk in one-plus innings.

Holden jumped out a 4-0 lead after two innings of play before Monterey responded with a three-run rally in the bottom of the third inning. However, the Rockets answered with two runs of their own in the top of the fourth inning to take a 6-3 lead.

That would be Holden’s last lead of the game. Monterey scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to give the Wolves a 7-6 lead. Even though the Rockets tied the game in the top of the fifth, the Wolves took the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to for a 9-7 lead.

Even though Richard said the bottom of the third inning was big for Monterey as far as getting back in the game, he said the bottom of the fourth was even bigger.

“I thought that was big to get ahead of them. And we stayed ahead for the rest of the game,” Richard said.

Jake Cooper was the winning pitcher after he allowed four runs, two earned, on six hits with 10 strikeouts and three walks over six innings. Trey Book went 2-for-2 with a double and two runs batted in, Jake Barlow had a double and two RBIs, and Hayden Cassels was 2-for-4 with one RBI.

Monterey (19-3) will take on the winner of the Converse/Stanley game at a day and time to be determined in the quarterfinals.