In a game that featured 31 runs, 21 hits and 13 errors, the Brownwood Lions rallied from an early six-run deficit, climbed out of a four-run hole midway through the contest, then scored five runs in their final trip to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning to stun the Gatesville Hornets, 16-15, and complete a three-game sweep in District 6-4A baseball action Thursday night at Morris Southall Field.
“There’s a lot to dissect in that seven innings there to figure out how it got to the point that it got to,” said Lions third-year head coach Bryan Harris, whose team has won of its last five district outings.
With the win, the Lions (8-12-1, 5-5) moved into second place in the 6-4A standings as they are technically tied with Gatesville (9-13, 4-4), but own the tiebreaker at this point due to the sweep. Brownwood trails first-place Stephenville (14-6-1, 6-2) by two games with two league games left – both against the Yellow Jackets – and leads fourth-place Lampasas (5-16, 4-6) by one game.
“We’re where we need to be right now,” Harris said. “We made a mess of this whole thing ourselves. We dug a hole and we’re trying to climb out of it. We’re looking for consistency – consistent at-bats, quality at-bats, consistency on the mound, consistency in the field. We’re still looking for it. We won in Gatesville last night and that’s the first win we’ve had on the road since we beat Tolar in the Bowie tournament. It’s been a long time. The last 10 games we’re 6-4 and it’s been just win, lose, win, lose. We are looking for that consistent effort every game and the guys know what’s at stake.”
Trailing 15-11 heading to the bottom of the sixth inning, Logan Posey reached on an error, Cole Miller walked and Campbell Gilmore drew a free pass to load the bases. David Turner’s sacrifice fly closed the gap to 15-12 as Kyle Ivy – running for Posey – scored. With two outs, Justin Valdez’s single coupled with another Gatesville error allowed Kaden Bessent – running for Miller – to cross the plate, which brought the Lions within 15-13. Jakob Hataway followed with a two-RBI single up the middle that brought home Gilmore and Valdez to even the score at 15. Case Markham extended the inning by reaching on a dropped fly ball, which also allowed Hataway to score the go-ahead run.
In the top of the seventh, Turner plunked the first batter of the inning but followed with a strikeout and a double play ball as the Lions secured the victory.
Brownwood finished with 10 hits – two each by Hataway and Markham, who drove in four and two runs, respectively; one by Turner, who added three RBIs; one and an RBI from Miller; and one hit apiece from Posey, Gilmore, Valdez and Jordyn Nickerson. Gavin Brandstetter contributed an RBI as well.
On the mound, Brandstetter started and surrendered 10 runs – eight earned – on five hits with two strikeouts and three walks over 2.1 innings. Miller tossed three innings of relief and yielded five runs – all unearned – on five hits with four strikeouts. Turner notched the win as he worked 1.2 innings and gave up one hit with one strikeout.
“Cole came in and did a really good job, I’m really proud of him,” Harris said. “He kept them off balance. They were consistent putting runs on the board and he came up and put up a couple of zeroes and got us back in the game. He got a little tired and they got on him a little, so I thought it was time to change the pace a little bit, change the tempo and David Turner came in and kept the off balance and did a really good job.”
Down 7-1 in the bottom of the second, the Lions scored five runs to close the gap to one. Hataway and Markham both delivered two-RBI base hits with two outs in the frame, while Markham – who doubled – later swiped third base on a delayed steal and came home on an errant throw to the bag.
Gatesville pushed the lead back to 10-6 but the Lions crept to within 10-8 in the bottom of the third as Miller and Gilmore led off with back-to-back doubles and scored on Turner’s two-RBI single.
The Lions then knotted the score at 10 in the bottom of the fourth as Markham and Brandstetter reached on consecutive errors to start the frame. Posey followed with a single and an error on the play allowed Markham to come home, while Miller followed with an RBI ground out that drove in Brandstetter the tying run.
Brownwood briefly grabbed an 11-10 lead in the bottom of the fifth as Markham singled with one out and scored on a two-out passed ball. But Gatesville – which finished with eight errors defensively – fired back with five runs in the top of the sixth to reclaim a 15-11 edge.
“They hit all three of our pitchers well, we just happened to put a few more in play and make a few more plays in the field than they did,” Harris said. “Those guys are fired up right now. I’m proud of them, I’m happy for them. They’ve been battling and grinding for a long time now. To get a win like that, I know it feels good for them.”
The Lions will host Lubbock Trinity at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 22 and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 23 in non-district action, before wrapping up league play against Stephenville in Brownwood on April 26, and at Stephenville on April 29.
