Presented with the opportunity to lock up the second seed from District 6-4A for the playoffs in their home and regular season finale, the Brownwood Lady Lions’ plans were instead foiled by the Stephenville Honeybees, 5-3, Friday.
The district bye falls for Brownwood next week, which means the Lady Lions (10-12-1, 4-4) have completed their regular season and are in a virtual tie with Stephenville (15-11, 3-3), which dropped the first game to Brownwood this week, 4-2. The Honeybees and Glen Rose (12-18, 2-4) square off next week, which will determine the second, third and fourth playoff seeds from 6-4A behind league leader Graham.
Brownwood fell behind Stephenville 1-0 in the first inning Friday as Macy Parker’s two-out single scored Ava Williamson, who reached on a one-out walk – one of six drawn by the Honeybees.
The Lady Lions quickly drew even in the bottom of the second inning as for the second game in a row, Mia Lopez launched a home run, this time a solo shot to left field to make the score 1-1.
Stephenville opened a 4-1 lead in the third inning as Presley Gaitan doubled with one out, Williamson followed with a single, and Mercedes Garcia ripped a two-RBI double to the gap in left-center field. With two down, Lillian Martinez came through with an RBI single to left that knocked in Parker, who reached on a walk.
The Honeybees extended the lead to 5-1 in the fourth as Gaitan reached on a one-out error and came home on a Williamson triple.
Brownwood began its attempt at a rally in the bottom of the fourth as Kyleigh Caperton led off with a triple and scored on Cecilia Rodriguez’s RBI single, but the Lady Lions made no more noise in the inning.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, Caperton again tripled with one out and came home on a wild pitch during Tynlea Wilson’s two-out at-bat.
The Lady Lions avoided further damage in the top of the seventh when the final Stephenville out was recorded at the plate as a single to left field by Martinez resulted in a relay from Jakayla Peek to Caperton at short to Chloe Walls at the plate to retire Reese Haggard, who tried to score from first after a one-out walk.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Peek and Peyton Pena were both plunked by pitches, bringing the tying run to the plate. With two outs, Walls singled to left field to load the bases, but the Lady Lions were unable to complete the comeback.
Brownwood finished with 10 hits against Gaitan, but left six runners stranded. Caperton, Lopez and Jeniffer Romero led the charge with two hits each followed by Walls, Rodriguez, Wilson and Mackenzie Welch with one apiece.
In the circle, Wilson surrendered four earned runs on 10 hits with seven strikeouts and six walks, and the Brownwood defense committed the game’s lone error.
