Flower Mound is moving from one familiar playoff opponent to another.

     The Jags – fresh off a sweep of District 6-5A rival Southlake Carroll in last weekend’s third round of the Class 5A playoffs – open another best-of-three series with El Paso Socorro on Friday in the regional semifinals. The Jags faced both teams a year ago, beating Socorro before losing to Carroll with a trip to the state tournament on the line.

     Game 1 of the Socorro series is slated for 6 p.m. on Friday at Citibank Park in Midland. Game 2 will be on Saturday at noon, and if necessary, a third game will immediately follow.

     “They (Socorro) have been the best, most consistent team in the west since our own school was opened 10 years ago,” Flower Mound head coach Steve Stinson said. “To beat them, we will need to pitch, play defense and do both exceptionally well. They are much better than even a year ago.”

     That’s saying something considering the bevy of talent Socorro put on the field in last year’s playoff series. They came in with a 35-3 record and were ranked as high as 4th in the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association and Inside Prep Baseball state poll.

     Socorro advanced to this year’s match up thanks to winning two of three over Weatherford. They run ruled the Kangaroos 16-1 in Game 2, then escaped a pitcher’s duel for a 3-0 win in Game 3 on Saturday. Socorro is 29-4 and ranked No. 6 in Texas. It has now won five regional quarterfinal series over the last six seasons.

     Flower Mound could be on its way back to the regional final if it plays like it did against Carroll. The team exercised demons of the past by winning Game 1 9-8 followed by a close 5-4 win in Game 2. In that decisive game, Chase Durham went 3-for-4 with three doubles and three runs batted in.

     The team scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth to build a 5-1 lead.

     “I knew that if we were ahead, the last out of the game would be the toughest,” Stinson said. “It’s just the way that team plays, it’s the way they’ve been coached and they never ever give up. They fight until the end, but we managed to get them this time.”

     Though Flower Mound took two out of three against the Dragons during the district schedule this season, it’s Southlake who had ousted Flower Mound from postseason contention in three of the last four seasons heading into this season. Just last year, the Jags were inches from heading back to their first state tournament appearance since back-to-back trips in 2003 and 2004. Instead, Southlake won the series in two games to advance to Round Rock.