The Brownwood Lions remained unbeaten on the season as they held off Jacksboro, 2-1, Friday night in a six-inning time limit contest in their third outing at Morris Southall Field as part of at the Brown County baseball tournament.
The time limit expired in the bottom of the sixth inning shortly after a single by Cole Miller, just the third hit of the night for the Lions and first since scratching across their two runs in the first inning.
Gavin Brandstetter singled with one out in the first and advanced to third base on an errant pick-off attempt a first by Jacksboro (3-2) pitcher Cannon Valenzuela. David Turner then laid down a squeeze bunt that plated Brandstetter from third, and Turner was able to reach first base on an off-target throw.
With two outs, Miller drew a walk to move Turner to second base, then Jack Field delivered an RBI single to left field that plated Turner with what would be the decisive run of the contest.
“We executed another squeeze bunt and that was just fantastic,” said Lions head coach Blake Sandford. “That’s going to be something we continue to do, things I’ve always done in 30-something years of coaching. We want to put that pressure on. I would like to see us get some more base hits, and we had some competitive at-bats against a good pitcher. We’re going up there with the right approach, we’re getting better and learning how to swing the bat.”
On the mound, Noah Gonzalez went the distance for the Lions as he yielded one run on five hits with nine strikeouts, five walks and eight base runners left stranded – including three in Jacksboro’s final trip to the plate.
“I was really proud of Noah and the job he did on the mound, and the defense behind him did a good job and made some great plays,” Sandford said. “Noah’s a tough kid, resilient, and he has a plus fastball and does a good job with it. He didn’t get too out of sorts when things got hairy, especially there at the end. He did a good job of keeping control.”
Jacksboro scored its lone run in the top of the fourth as Kasey Ray Swan led off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch, then Valenzuela reached on a bunt single. With runners at the corners, Swan broke for home and Valenzuela headed for second, and catcher Logan Posey fired down to Antonio Ybarra to retire Valenzuela for the first out of the inning, conceding the run. Gonzalez then retired Mason McAnear on a strikeout and Brayden Rockey on a ground out to Brandstetter at first base to end the frame.
“My thought is it’s a race to get outs and we have a great catcher in Logan Posey and great infielders in Austin Wright and Tony Ybarra, so we want to get those outs fast,” said Sandford said. “If that means giving up one run for the out in that situation, we’ll do that. We’re either going to pitch our way to a win or hit our way to a win.”
Gonzalez escaped another jam in the top of the sixth as, with two outs, Valenzuela reached on an error, Tyler Mitchell drew a walk and McAnear reached on a dropped third strike to load the bases. But Gonzalez responded with his ninth and final strikeout, that against pinch-hitter Jaxon Ward, which essentially ended the contest.
The Lions (3-0-1) conclude tournament action Saturday against Canyon at 11:30 a.m. and Andrews at 7 p.m.
