The final result wasn’t what head coach Cherita Munguia had hoped for, but the overall performance left her feeling optimistic as the Brownwood Lady Lions’ softball season opened with a narrow 3-2 home loss to No. 19 Fredericksburg Monday night.
“I don’t think I ever walked off the field smiling after a loss, but this one was awesome,” Munguia said. “We took on Fredericksburg last season and it was one of our worst outings that we had, a momentum killer for a minute on us emotionally and we had to go back to the drawing board. We weren’t sure what was going to happen tonight, especially with a lot of new faces out there, and some young faces, but these kids stepped up to the challenge. We knew the mistakes were ours, and we win that ball game if we don’t do things to ourselves. That’s a huge win and loss for us because we know we can do it, if we can clean it up a little bit.”
The Lady Lions, who went 19-13 last season and advanced to the third round of the playoffs, return five starters from the squad, while Fredericksburg is coming off a 25-11 regional finalist campaign a year ago.
Knotted at 2 in the top of the seventh, Fredericksburg scored the decisive run in its last at-bat as Riley McGuffie was hit by a pitch with one out and came home when Brindle Wolfe doubled to center field.
Brownwood fell behind twice earlier in the contest, and rallied twice.
Down 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth, Kaydence Allen was plunked by pitch with two outs, then Brenda Allen delivered an RBI triple to center field that plated courtesy runner Eboni Baker.
Later facing a 2-1 deficit in the bottom of the sixth, Carlee Burks led off with a double, moved to third base on Lila Mares’ ground out, and scored on an RBI ground out by Kaydence Allen.
The Lady Lions finished with seven hits – four by Hanah Campos and one apiece by Burks, Brenda Allen and Amarrea Thomas.
In the circle, Kaydence Allen went the distance as she struck out 16 batters, walked two, hit three more.
“I loved Kaydence tonight, I thought she did an excellent job,” Munguia said. “She’s a gotten a little bit older, a little more mature, and she looks calm. She has a new catcher in Nevaeh Perez back there and she’s doing a good job communicating. I liked some of my younger bats, Brenda Allen looked confident, and of course Hanah Campos was a vocal leader and a leader in the batter’s box going 4-for-4 as the lead-off. She has some huge shoes to fill and she stepped up and took care of that tonight. We just have some pieces we need to congeal together.”
The Lady Lions will next compete in the Killeen tournament Thursday through Saturday.
“I want to see us go up in the batters box and look somebody down and say ‘I’m coming after you,’” Munguia said of the tournament goals for the Lady Lions. “We’re still a little hesitant and I want us to be a team that says you have to beat us, not the other way around. But hat’s something that takes a lot of times and a lot of wins and a lot of comfort.”