MINERAL WELLS – The No. 8 Brownwood Lions have reached the halfway point of the District 6-4A baseball slate with a flawless league record thanks to their 11th consecutive victory overall, 6-3 over the Mineral Wells Rams Thursday night.
“These kids have done this over and over now where they don’t go crazy or bananas with the way the game starts,” said Lions head coach Blake Sandford. “As the games go on and on we feel like we can strike and do some things. I’m just proud of the kids and their resolve.”
The Lions (17-4-1, 6-0), who completed a three-game district sweep of Mineral Wells (4-12-1, 1-5), tallied their most runs in a single outing since March 8 – a span of seven games – and also matched their most runs scored in a game during their current win streak.
After playing four scoreless innings, the Lions offense finally did some damage in the top of the fifth. With one out, Jordyn Nickerson drew a walk, then David Turner followed with a single and an error on the throw that moved runners to second and third base. Gavin Brandstetter then came through with an RBI single to right field to plate Nickerson ahead of a two-run home run down the left field line by Logan Posey, staking the Lions to a 3-0 advantage.
“Logan did a wonderful job of making a great adjustment up there and I was proud of him for that,” Sandford said. “He’s been working hard at it and I don’t know if there’s really such a thing as being due, but if there is he was due. And the weird deal in baseball is when you start hitting, it gets to be contagious.”
Mineral Wells got two runs back in the bottom of the fifth, but the Lions answered with another three-spot in the top of the sixth. Austin Pittman walked and Austin Wright singled to put runners on the corners with one out, then Antonio Ybarra laid down a squeeze bunt to score Pittman for a 4-2 edge. Nickerson followed with an RBI double off the wall in left field that scored Wright. Turner then drew a walk to load the bases and Brandstetter’s RBI ground out plated Ybarra with the sixth and final run.
“We hit some balls hard in that inning, and we were also able to start executing the squeeze and all that kind of stuff that we like to do to just create chaos,” Sandford said. “The kids have adapted to that and I was thinking about doing it earlier in the game, but they did a good job of eliminating some of the high strikeouts we’ve been having and working toward not popping it up, which we worked on extensively since the last game, and they bought into that.”
No foe has scored more than three runs against the Lions in any of the past 11 games, though Mineral Wells has matched that feat in all three meetings as the Rams mustered one more run in the bottom of the sixth.
Yovani Figueroa started and notched the win on the mound, while Turner came on in relief and secured the save. The duo allowed just one earned run on eight hits with four strikeouts and five walks, while the Brownwood defense committed an uncharacteristic three errors behind them.
“Yovani started off and did a really good job and throws with great velocity,” Sandford said. “He did a good job of keeping us in the ball game. All these guys we’re pitching are seniors and they want this. They’re not having senioritis or looking at what’s next for them, they’re working hard and banding together and are great leaders and great young men and are working their tails off to get us to where we need to be.”
In other district action Thursday, Stephenville edged Graham by a 4-3 count so at the midway point the Lions lead the Yellow Jackets (14-7-1, 4-2) by two games, the Steers (10-9, 3-3) by three, and Glen Rose (12-9, 0-4) – which had a district bye Thursday – remains at the bottom of the standings.
Brownwood is back in action at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Graham, which is has already defeated once this season, 3-0, on March 13.
“It’s a tough place to play, but fortunately we’ve had a lot of games over there with playing a tournament earlier,” Sandford said. “The more you win, the more confidence you get and you can’t substitute that. They just keep dialing it up and doing a really good job and I’m proud of them for that.”