STEPHENVILLE – The Brownwood Lions on Tuesday night continued their inability to solve the mystery of the Stephenville Yellow Jackets, dropping their second District 6-4A contest to their ‘Battle of 377’ rivals by a 3-1 count.
Brownwood (18-7-1, 7-2), which has defeated every team in the district other than Stephenville (12-12-1, 5-2), scored its only run in the top of the first inning, which the Yellow Jackets countered in the home half. Stephenville then put the decisive two runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The Lions’ run was the result of a Cole Miller RBI sacrifice fly that plated Justin Valdez, courtesy-running for Gavin Brandstetter who singled with one out.
Brownwood was limited to seven hits – three by Brandstetter, two by David Turner and one each from Jordyn Nickerson and Antonio Ybarra – and struck out 13 times.
On the mound, Brandstetter tossed all seven innings and allowed three runs – two earned – on seven hits with seven strikeouts. The Brownwood defense committed four errors behind Brandstetter.
The Lions will attempt to the salvage the last of three district games against Stephenville at 7 p.m. Friday at Morris Southall Field.