SAN ANGELO – The Brownwood Lions ended a postseason drought in dramatic fashion Saturday afternoon, erasing a six-run deficit to knock off the San Angelo Lake View Chiefs, 8-7, in Game 2 of a Region I-4A baseball bi-district playoff series – marking the first time the maroon and white have reached the second round since 2019.
District 6-4A second seed Brownwood (21-9) defeated District 5-4A third seed San Angelo Lake View (9-19-1) by a 16-4 count Friday night in San Angelo, and the finale of the series was moved back to San Angelo due to thunderstorms that left Morris Southall Field and Howard Payne’s Don Shepard Park unplayable.
The Lions were plagued by a total of 10 walks throughout the contest, and three errors in the top of the first inning that allowed Lake View to race out to a 5-0 lead,
Forced into catch-up from the outset, the Lions closed the gap to 6-4 with four runs in the third inning, then added another four-spot in their final trip to the plate in the sixth to complete the comeback.
“Those guys have a lot of grit and resolve to fight back the way they did today,” said Lions fourth-year head coach Brian Harris. “I’m proud of them and how they handled it one at-bat at a time. The game has highs and lows and you celebrate the good things and work through the bad times, That’s what we did today.”
During the Lions’ sixth-inning rally, a bang-bang play ended up determining the final outcome.
With the bases loaded, one out and three runs already home in the frame for Brownwood, David Turner stepped to the plate and hit a ground ball directly back to Lake View pitcher Joseph Kofron, who fired to the plate to record the second out of the inning as Antonio Ybarra was unable to beat the throw. Catcher Trace Woods then turned and fired down to first base to attempt an inning-ending double, but Turner beat out a throw that also pulled first baseman Trey Henry off the bag. While this was going on, Jordyn Nickerson had advanced from second base and never slowed down as he rounded third and sprinted toward the plate. The toss from Henry back to Woods wasn’t in time, however, as Nickerson dove home with a headfirst slide that gave Brownwood its first and only lead, 8-7.
“We had Tony on third, the ball was hit right back to the pitcher and he got him out at home, “Nickerson said. “I’m coming to third and I see them go for the double play and I pictured it in my head that if they threw it to first I was immediately going to take off. I was going the whole way. It was pretty close, and if I would have hesitated I would have been done.”
Harris said of the decisive play, “I’m not sure that I can process it all, it was like a whirlwind. Once the play is in motion, as a coach you’re telling the players to see it in your mind before it happens, but something like that doesn’t happen very often, that’s hard to coach. There was a lot of instinct that happened on the base paths there from our guys. We had one of the fastest guys in the county coming around third base and we wanted to put some pressure on them. When you’re that fast, you have to put pressure on the defense to play catch. That was all Jordyn.”
Clinging to that one-run lead, Lions staff ace Gavin Brandstetter took the mound in the top of the seventh and retired the Chiefs in order, tallying one strikeout.
Looking back on Brownwood’s bottom of the sixth, the Lions started the frame down 7-4 but Owen Huntsinger singled and Logan Posey drew a walk to start the inning. With one out, Austin Wright’s RBI single to left field trimmed the deficit to 7-5. Ybarra followed with a slow roller to third base, where Lake View’s Nolan Green attempted to fire the ball back to the bag where Justin Valdez – running for Posey – had a sizable lead and had broke for the plate. The throw was off target, however, and both Valdez and Wright were able to come home, knotting the score at 7, while Ybarra moved to third base. Nickerson then walked and Brandstetter singled to load the bases and set the stage for Turner’s at-bat.
Trailing 6-0 in the bottom of the third, the Lions began to show life as Wright singled and Ybarra walked to start the frame. Following a bunt base hit by Nickerson that filled the sacks, Brandstetter’s two-RBI single trimmed the deficit to 6-2. Turner followed with an RBI single, then Taylor Bessent picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly as the Lions trailed by just two runs at that point.
Brownwood finished with seven hits in the contest – two by Wright and Brandstetter and one each from Turner, Huntsinger and Nickerson.
On the mound, Luke Gray started and yielded five runs – all unearned – over two innings with three hits, three strikeouts and five walks. Cole Miller tossed four innings of relief to claim the win, allowing two runs – one earned – on four hits with four strikeouts and five walks. Brandstetter recorded the save.
“Our pitching staff had some problems today, but I told Cole after he came off after his second inning, if he could hold them to six runs we’d come back and win this game,” Harris said.
The Lions did just that, despite giving up seven.
Brownwood will next face District 7-4A champion Wichita Falls (17-13) – which ousted District 8-4A fourth seed Lake Worth, 7-2 and 10-0, in their bi-district series – in the Region I-4A area round of the playoffs next weekend.
