Everything went wrong last season for Richmond-Burton’s baseball team, and everything went right Wednesday night.

Bryce Kowall, R-B’s senior right fielder and slugger, called it surreal. The Rockets, after all, had just beaten their rival in a postseason game, avenging two regular-season losses to the Kishwaukee River Conference champs, and doing so on their opponents’ home field in front of a larger-than-large crowd.

“This is just a big moment,” Kowall said after his two-run single and 2-for-3 effort helped R-B beat Johnsburg 6-2 in a semifinal of the Class 2A Johnsburg Regional. “We’ve been working hard all year, all of these guys. I’m just so proud of everybody because we’ve battled. We’ve gone through some stuff, especially last year when we were down in the dumps a little bit. Coming back [this season] means a lot.”

The win advanced fifth-seeded R-B (19-16) to Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. regional final against top-seeded Aurora Christian (25-9) and ended the season for No. 4 Johnsburg (21-11), which beat R-B by the scores of 7-1 and 11-0 in early April.

Last season, R-B, only three years removed from a runner-up finish in the Class 2A state tournament, slumped to eight wins.

It was an even tougher season than the won-lost record suggested.

“Bad seasons happen,” Rockets coach Mike Giese said. “The weather didn’t go our way, we had field issues, we had player issues. It was just one of those years where things went south in all directions. The thing that people don’t get is, they’re kids, and when you go through failure, you really have to look in the mirror and you have to make the effort to correct some things. Everybody thinks it’s easy, and it’s not.”

Giese started six seniors – Kowall, starting pitcher Logan Johnson, first baseman Ray Hannemann, shortstop Ryan Scholberg, third baseman Cooper Nagel and center fielder Joseph Larsen – and it was by design after what they endured last season.

They all delivered, particularly Johnson, who pitched five-plus innings for the win. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound righty struck out five and allowed only three hits, two of which never left the infield.

“He pitched lights out,” Giese said. “I wanted to give him this game because he was a senior. I wanted to put all of our seniors on the field and give them a chance for this game, and they all showed up.”

Johnson didn’t play in either game against Johnsburg early in the season after he got injured in the Rockets’ fourth game on their Alabama trip. He said he stepped on a base wrong and ended up getting plantar fasciitis and swelling all through his right heel and up his Achilles tendon.

The injury caused him to miss about a month.

“He was locked in,“ Kowall said of Johnson’s effort against Johnsburg. ”I’m really glad he got the opportunity to play and show off his stuff against this team.”

Giese pulled Johnson after he walked leadoff hitter Nate Frost and allowed a single to Ashton Stern to start the sixth, with R-B up 3-0. Anthony Harvey allowed a sacrifice fly to Josh Speer and a fielder’s-choice RBI to Carter Block but got a called-third strike on Peyton Mesce on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded and two out.

Harvey pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to earn the save.

“I felt like I had more, but it was a close game, and we had Anthony behind me,” Johnson said. “He’s a great pitcher, and we knew he could close it out, so we gave him the ball.”

Johnson, a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh commit, threw 80 pitches and was charged with one earned run.

“I felt like I was dialed in, and so was everybody behind me,” Johnson said. “I felt I could trust everyone, and they made almost every single play for me. It felt great. Great team win.”

R-B, which scored three unearned runs off starting pitcher Mesce in the third, added three more unearned runs in the seventh without the benefit of a hit. Kowall, whose two-run single was the big hit in the third, walked and scored a run in the seventh.

Scholberg, who sparkled at shortstop, had R-B’s only other hit.

“Our approach in the batter’s box was fantastic,” Giese said. “Even when we got beat, we strung together some great at-bats, and our defense and pitching were spot-on, which has been our mantra all year. When our defense and pitching show up, we always have a chance to win. Today, we hustled great, we ran the bases well [five stolen bases], and we just played the whole package. I’m super happy for the seniors.”

Johnsburg’s only hits came from Frost, Stern and Brady Fisher. The Skyhawks committed four errors.

“Just a little too inconsistent this year,” Johnsburg coach Eric Toussaint said. “Sometimes we have bad games. Our history has been, if we don’t make errors, we’re winning. ... Our pitching’s been great all year. Our hitting has been OK, and when our defense is good, we’re good. When our defense is bad, we’re not very good.”