LODI — An epic 3-hour and 15-minute marathon of dueling aces ended in heartbreak for Manteca High’s baseball team at Tony Zupo Field Wednesday.

El Dorado’s Zack Culp was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning for the long-awaited 2-1 walk-off victory.

The win sends the Cougars (25-2-1) to the semifinal round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoffs. Earlier Wednesday, Sonora pounded Ceres 9-1 and will meet El Dorado for Game 1 of a best-of-three series Saturday.

And Cougar head coach Rusty McDonald feels fortunate to advance.

“Basically, in my opinion, we got lucky,” he said. “We won on a fluke, but it was one of the better-pitched high school games you’re ever going to see. It was a good game.”

Manteca reliever Jeremy Vaughn plunked leadoff batter Matthew Smith with a 0-1 pitch to spark the deciding rally. Alex Alvarez and Nicholas Bonniksen followed with well-placed bunt singles to load the bases with no outs, then on the next pitch Culp “drove” in the winning run by absorbing an inside breaking ball with his back.

It was a quirky end to a game that featured two outstanding performances by both team’s workhorse pitchers.

El Dorado’s Justin Dillon, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound hard-throwing righty bound for Sacramento State, struck out 16 batters in nine innings. He walked one, hit one and allowed four hits and an earned run in his 128-pitch effort.

Not to be outdone, Manteca’s lanky lefty Jake Corn, a sophomore, fanned 18 batters in eight innings but was tested throughout. Except for the seventh, El Dorado had the leadoff batter reach in every inning.

Corn, to his credit, was able to work himself out of jams. That also led to a high pitch count. He threw 145 pitches, scattered four hits and walked five (one intentionally).

“He definitely carried us today,” Manteca coach Gene Ballardo said. “He wanted to go back out there but I didn’t want to run him out there. He’s young and he did enough, I’m not going to do that to him.”

El Dorado stranded 13 runners in nine innings, while Manteca had chances late.

Freshman Dominic Pisano, one of just two starting Buffaloes who didn’t strike out, smashed a double to left to lead off the seventh inning. He advanced to second on Buddy Reeder’s sacrifice bunt but was left stranded on third.

And in the top of the 10th, sophomore Ezequil Diaz, the other Buffalo to not strike out, stroked a groundball single to center. El Dorado reliever Timothy Hinrichs got out of the inning with a popup to first and two grounders to short.

“We didn’t get that clutch hit and that was the difference in the game,” Ballardo said. “But we played that game like we should, like it was like our last. I am very proud of their effort. They’ve got a guy throwing 92 (mph) and he pitched very well. We battled, and if we were going down we were going down swinging.”

Alex Martinez singled in Manteca’s lone run in the sixth inning. He finished 2 for 4 from the cleanup spot. His RBI tied the game after the Cougars went ahead on Zack Brown’s two-out bases-loaded walk. Culp, who reached on an infield error to start the inning, plated the unearned run.

The Buffaloes (14-10) had high expectations for their fourth postseason run in five years. Last season, they made it all the way to the final round from the out-bracket game, upsetting two league champions, including rival East Union in the second round, to get there.

With four returning underclassmen, including the all-sophomore battery of catcher Buddy Reeder and Corn, the future is bright.

“We’ve been in close games this year, three extra-inning games prior (to Wednesday) and it’s good experience for the underclassmen,” Ballardo said. “Hopefully we can build on this and make it back. We have a good thing going and we are looking to grow from this for next year.”