GATESVILLE – The Brownwood Lions picked up a crucial victory to move into the fourth seed in the District 6-4A baseball standings, notching their second win in as many outings against the Gatesville Hornets, 9-3, Wednesday.

In a game rescheduled from Tuesday due to thunderstorms, the Lions (7-12-1, 4-5) – who are technically tied with Lampasas (5-15, 4-5) for third place – scored six runs in the top of the third inning to break a 1-all tie with Gatesville (9-12, 4-3).

Brownwood’s third inning began with a leadoff double by Jordyn Nickerson,while Jakob Hataway followed with a one-out RBI double to push the Lions in front, 2-1. Case Markham was hit by a pitch ahead of Gavin Brandstetter’s RBI single that stretched the advantage to 3-1. Logan Posey was next up and doubled home Markham for a 4-1 edge. Cole Miller then delivered a two-RBI single for a 6-1 cushion. With two down, David Turner came up with an RBI single to increase the edge to 7-1

After Gatesville closed the gap to 7-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run homer by Cayden Mata, the Lions answered with two runs in the top of the sixth on Markham’s two-out single to left field, followed by a two-run home run over the left-center field fence by Brandstetter, who finished with a game-high four RBIs.

Brownwood opened the scoring in the top of the first as Hataway was hit by a pitch to start the game and scored on an RBI ground out by Brandstetter. Gatesville drew even at 1 in the bottom of the first on an RBI ground out by Mata

On the mound, Kyle Ivy went the distance and allowed three hits with four strikeouts, one walk and two hit batters on 104 pitches to notch the win for Brownwood.

The Lions finished with nine hits – two each by Brandstetter and Miller and one apiece by Hataway, Markham, Posey, Turner and Nickerson.

The two teams meet again at 7 p.m. Thursday at Morris Southall Field with the Lions looking to secure a district sweep and move into second place in the 6-4A standings.