The Brownwood Lions tossed their third consecutive shutout to start the season in Saturday’s first game of a Brown County Tournament doubleheader, then the maroon and white’s season-opening win streak was snapped as they were kept off the scoreboard in the weekend finale.
Brownwood downed Perryton by a 6-0 count at the new Morris Southall Field before falling to Gatesville, 5-0, to finish the tournament with a 2-1 record, following a 1-0 shutout of Sweetwater Friday night.
“In baseball, that’s a pretty good percentage to win two of three, so I’m happy with that,” said Lions head coach Blake Sandford. “I’m proud of the effort, proud of the competitiveness and proud of them showing up to the ballpark ready to play. We had good moments in the games that we won, and it was not a bad week of baseball for us. You have an opportunity to grow when you lose and you have an opportunity to grow when you win and if we don’t take advantage of those opportunities then we’re missing something. That’s what I’m trying to express to the kids, continue to grow and get better at what they’re doing.”
In the victory over Perryton, the Lions erupted for five runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Antonio Ybarra reached on an error to start the frame, then moved to second base on a sacrifice by Austin Pittman and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Austin Wright was later hit by a pitch and then scored on a two-out RBI infield single by Jack Field. Evan Escobar followed with another infield single, then Dario Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Michael Badillo became the third Lion in the first inning to be plunked, which allowed Field to score. Later, Julius Lara, running for Escobar, came home on a wild pitch while an errant throw back to the pitcher on the same play allowed Rodriguez to score.
Brownwood’s other run came in the third inning as Field led off with a walk and scored on an RBI double by Rodriguez.
On the mound, Wright went the distance and pushed the Lions’ scoreless string to 18 innings as he yielded four hits, struck out seven, and did not surrender a walk. The Brownwood did defense also did not commit an error.
“We have really outstanding pitching and we’re going to go to bat with that,” Sandford said. “We’re just going to try and get more run support so we can relax a little bit and not try and do it all on the mound. I was proud of our short game and our defense. We had a miscue on a play or two the last game but we had really great effort, and we were virtually error-free in all the games this week. But scoring runs has to be one of the things we have to continue to get better at all year.”
Gatesville denied the Lions any runs in the finale, as the Hornets scored once in the first inning, twice in the second, and two more times in fifth off Brownwood pitcher Noah Gonzalez, who struck out seven but walked three – all of whom scored.
For the Lions, Pittman singled in the first inning, Gonzalez walked in the second, Wyatt Wolf reached on an infield single in the third, while Badillo singled and Wolf walked in the fifth to account for the Brownwood base runners.
The Lions are off until Thursday when they hit the road for the first time as they take part in the Sweetwater tournament.