The Brownwood Lions competed in the first two of the five weekend games in their portion of the Brown County baseball tournament Thursday morning at Morris Southall Field, rallying for a tie against San Angelo Lake View in a two-hour time limit contest, followed by a run-rule five-inning victory over Perryton.
“Early in the season you’re still trying to find an identity and trying to find your way around the diamond, whether it’s at-bats or in the field or on the mound,” said Lions head coach Blake Sandford. “I thought the kids did a good job of waking up early and fighting really hard. These are good kids, they’re resilient, they don’t get down on the lows and don’t get too up on the highs. They try to maintain a sense of calm even if things aren’t going the way they want them to go.”
Thursday’s second outing was an 8-0 triumph for the Lions over Perryton, as the game was called in the bottom of the fifth inning due to an eight-run rule instituted for this tournament only.
“The second game, any time you have a doubleheader you always worry and wonder about how the kids will respond and I thought they did a good job responding,” Sandford said. “They made some double plays, had some quality at-bats and if you can minimize your mistakes and have good at-bats and hustle, good things can happen.
Brownwood manufactured single runs across the plate in the bottom of the first, third and fourth innings, then struck for five runs in their final trip to the plate in the bottom of the fifth.
“Everybody that knows the style we play, we will be manufacturing runs but if they can hit the wall we’re going to turn them loose,” Sandford said. “It’s on us, and the other pitcher, too, to see what we’re made of. It depends on the ebb and flow of the game. We’re here to bunt but we’re also here to bang the wall.”
In the bottom of the first against Perryton, Gavin Brandstetter singled up the middle with one out, David Turner followed with a base hit to left, then Brandstetter scored on Logan Posey’s one-out RBI single into left field.
The Lions boosted the lead to 2-0 in the third as Jordyn Nickerson started the frame with an infield single, advanced to second on a ground out, reached third on a wild pitch, and scored on Turner’s RBI ground out.
The lead reached 3-0 in the fourth as Jack Field reached on a two-base error with one out, then Eli Hill immediately delivered an RBI single to center field.
The flood gates opened in the fifth as Nickerson reached on a one-out error then, with two down, Turner singled to right field, Posey ripped a single off the third base’s glove, Cole Miller plated two with a double to field, Field beat out an infield single, and Hill reached on an error that allowed the final two runs to score.
Overall, Brownwood tallied nine hits – two each from Turner and Posey and one apiece by Miller, Field, Brandstetter, Hill and Nickerson.
On the mound, Yovani Figueroa pitched five shutout innings with seven strikeouts, four walks, three base runners stranded and one hit surrendered – a one-out single in the top of the first.
Figueroa also escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second as two walks and an error filled the sacks, but an apparent RBI sacrifice fly to center field was over ruled as the base runner on third was declared to have left the bag early, resulting in an inning-ending double play instead.
“Yovani Figueroa came out and he was dealing,” Sandford said. “He did a really good job of commanding the strike zone. When he had some misses here and there he corrected it, got back to being focused and continued to deliver and had a pretty efficient outing.”
In a 4-4 tie with Lake View – whom the Lions rallied to defeat, 7-6, in Monday night’s season opener – the Lions again clawed back in their final at-bat to prevent the Chiefs from earning a victory.
Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth as the two-hour time limit had expired, Miller drew a walk to begin the frame. Pinch-runner Noah Gonzalez then stole second base and advanced to third on an errant throw from the catcher. Austin Pittman then laid down a suicide squeeze bunt along the first base line, allowing the charging Gonzalez to score with ease and deadlock the game at 4.
“They had to fight back hard against Lake View again to get a tie,” Sandford said. “They executed the squeeze well, we’re trying to put pressure on the other teams, and I thought their execution of that is looking positive.”
The Lions seized a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Brandstetter walked with one out and scored on Posey’s two-out RBI single.
After Lake View grabbed a 2-1 lead in the top of the second, the Lions regained a 3-2 edge in bottom half of the frame as Miller singled and Field walked ahead of an RBI single from Hill and an RBI sac fly from Austin Wright.
Lake View answered with solo runs in the fourth to tie the game at 3, and again in the fifth to grab a 4-3 advantage.
On the mound for the Lions, Field worked three innings and yielded three runs on four hits with five strikeouts, three walks and a hit batter. Wright tossed the final two innings and surrendered a run on two hits with a pair of strikeouts and one hit batter.
The Lions produced five hits – one each by Posey, Miller, Hill, Brandstetter and Wright.
Brownwood (2-0-1) will face Jacksboro at 7 p.m. Friday, Canyon at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Andrews at 7 p.m. Saturday to round out tournament competition.
Regarding the goals for the rest of the weekend, Sandford said, “Continuous improvement with the at-bats, the benders and the off-speed stuff, and then shore up our throwing and catching.”
