The stellar pitching and clutch hitting for the Brownwood Lions continued Thursday night at Morris Southall Field, as they secured their most important victory to date – a 3-2 triumph over the No. 10 Stephenville Yellow Jackets, reigning champions of District 6-4A and a regional finalist a year ago.
“It was a great baseball game played by a lot of great baseball players,” said Lions head coach Blake Sandford. “Stephenville is well-coached, they have a good thing going over there, but we keep digging, fighting and having this savage mentality. You just try and weather storms, not get too high on the highs and too low on the lows and go out there and play baseball.”
The victory marked the seventh in a row for the Lions (13-4-1, 3-0), who stand firm atop the 6-4A standings a quarter of the way through the 12-game slate. During their current seven-game win streak, the Lions have yielded a total of seven runs with four shutouts.
“When you pitch like this you’re always in a ball game, just like last night,” Sandford said referring to Wednesday’s 3-0 victory at Graham. “If our pitchers are keeping it close you have to play pretty good defense behind them because those guys are fighting. We had an epiphany and a coming to Jesus situation in practice a while back when we weren’t as crisp on defense, and lately we’re being crisp on defense and fighting really hard to make those outs for the pitchers who are doing a great job on the hill.”
Gavin Brandstetter went the distance on the mound and yielded just two runs on five hits with four strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter, while the Lion defense committed only one error behind him. Brandstetter’s two-out, two-RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning snapped a 1-all tie and put the Lions in front for good.
“Gavin’s a hoss and I’m blessed they chose me to come be a part of this and that he’s on this team – all of them actually,” Sandford said. “I told them the other day the true blessing for me is getting to be with them. They’re a blessing in my life every single day because they are all great ball players.”
The Lions fell behind 1-0 in the first inning as Stephenville (11-5-1, 1-1) started the game with a double from Eli Hitola, then an infield single from Mason Weyers. Mason Haynes then laid down a bunt that resulted in the first run of the game, but Brandstetter and company exited the inning without any additional damage.
Brownwood pulled even at 1 in the bottom of the third inning as Austin Pittman led off with a looping double down the right field line and moved to third base on a sacrifice by Austin Wright. With one out, Antonio Ybarra – the No. 9 batter in the order – smacked the first pitch he saw off Luke Heller back up the middle for an RBI single that plated Pittman.
“Baseball is a stat game, but you have to have a little bit of feel as a coach and as a player,” Sandford said. “These kids, when we give them the sense of purpose and sense of responsibility to strive for perfection and strive for accomplishments, you can throw those numbers away and it’s just about let’s go win in big moments.”
In the bottom of the fifth, the Lions benefited from a wild streak from Heller and were able to tack on two more runs. With one out, Pittman was plunked by a pitch, then Ybarra and Jordyn Nickerson both drew two-out walks to load the bases for Brandstetter, who rocketed a grounder up the middle to push Brownwood in front, 3-1 as Xavier Zepeda – running for Pittman – and Ybarra both scored.
Stephenville made one last gasp in the top of the seventh as Jadis Clemmer walked with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out RBI double to deep left field by Tyler Hicks. Brandstetter, however, was able to induce a fly ball from the next batter, Kutter Stone, to Jack Field in right field for the final out.
In other district action Thursday, Graham knocked off Glen Rose, 6-3. With that result, the Lions are now 3-0 in league play, Stephenville and Mineral Wells are both 1-1, Graham is 1-2 and Glen Rose sits at 0-2.
The Lions will wrap up the first of three rounds of District 6-4A action next Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. when they host Glen Rose. First, however, the Lions will welcome Gatesville at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a non-district tilt.
