The Brownwood Lions finished with a 3-1 record at the Brown County Invitational, again rallying from an early deficit to knock off the San Angelo Lake View Chiefs, 7-4, in Saturday night’s tournament finale at Morris Southall Field.
“We won three ball games this weekend and we’re still not playing our best baseball,” said Lions head coach Brian Harris. “I can’t say enough about them – they’re competing, they’re helping each other, they’re playing the way we are asking them to play and they’re just getting better. The things that we mess up on, we’ll work on in practice this next week and hopefully we won’t make those mistakes again.”
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning Saturday night, the Lions tied Lake View at 2 in the bottom of the frame.
With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Cole Miller reached on a two-out blooper to center field that Lake View couldn’t field cleanly, which allowed Case Markham – running for Hunter Day, who reached on a fielder’s choice – and Xadrian Mares, who drew a walk, to score the tying runs.
The game remained tied in the top of the fifth thanks to a literal lucky bounce. With Lake View’s Joseph Kofron on third base with two outs, Day issued ball four to Cody High on an errant throw. Kofron broke for home after the ball got past Brownwood catcher Logan Posey, but the ball deflected off the concrete backstop straight to Day, who was able to tag out Kofron for the final out of the inning.
Brownwood then took control with five runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Gavin Brandstetter reached on a misplayed fly ball in left field, then no one covered first base after Owen Huntsinger laid down a bunt. With runners on second and third and no outs, Kris Hobbs ripped a two-RBI double to left field to give the Lions their first lead, 4-2. Taylor Bessent then reached on another Lake View miscue. With two runners on, Day struck out but the catcher dropped the ball, forcing a throw to first base for the first out which allowed Hobbs to race home with the fifth run. After a Miller walk, Posey reached on a two-out error that brought home Bessent and Miller with Brownwood’s final two runs of the game.
“We talk about making adjustments as the game goes on, especially at the plate,” Harris said. “Remember how the pitcher pitched you and what he got you out on. Remember that if you hit a double in one at-bat the coach in the other dugout is probably calling pitches and he’s probably not going to pitch you the same way. They’ve done a really good job with that and I’m very proud of them for making the adjustments at the plate.”
Lake View tacked on two runs in the top of the sixth inning, but game ended there due to the two-hour tournament time limit.
Day went the distance on the mound for the Lions, striking out seven, walking four and surrendering four hits.
“Hunter Day on the mound now has two quality starts that he’s put together,” Harris said. “His stat line at Brock was phenomenal. He threw three innings, walked one and struck out five. We still have to work on the secondary pitches, but I’m very proud of the way he has competed.”
The Lions (3-2) are off until Tuesday, March 9 when they open District 6-4A action at Glen Rose.
“We want to keep getting better and I think we’re doing that,” Harris said. “We challenged the kids that we wanted to be better at the end of this tournament than when we started and we are. We still have a lot of little things to work on and we can fix them and get better in a lot of areas. I’m very proud of where we are and where we’re headed. We’ll have a good week of work, hopefully heal some guys up, and get ready for that first district game.”
