GRAHAM – The Brownwood Lady Lions avenged a 13-run district loss and clinched a playoff berth in the process, spoiling the Graham Lady Blues’ home finale, 14-5, Tuesday night in District 6-4A softball action.

“I just knew that coming into this, this was a game that we needed,” said Lady Lions head coach Cherita Munguia. “The last time we played, we knew that we were the better team and we just made a lot of mistakes. Tonight, we capitalized on Graham’s mistakes, and this was one for the books. I always tell them don’t peak, too early, and this is the perfect time.”

With the win, the Lady Lions (15-10, 5-4) moved into sole possession of second place in the league standings heading into Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. regular season finale at home against district front-runner Brock (24-0-2, 9-0).

Just as important, Mineral Wells (16-10, 3-6) fell to Stephenville (12-14-1, 4-5) by a 3-2 count Tuesday and into fifth place alone, two games behind Brownwood. Therefore, the Lady Rams cannot catch the Lady Lions with just one game remaining, as Mineral Wells owns the tiebreaker.

Stephenville and Graham (9-15, 4-5) are now tied for third and fourth place, and the Lady Lions own a tiebreaker over Stephenville, regardless of Friday’s results. With Brownwood being the second largest school in the district enrollment wise behind Stephenville, and no chance for the Honeybees to place ahead of the Lady Lions, Brownwood will be the No. 1 seed from District 6 in the 4A Division I playoffs.

In Tuesday’s victory over Graham, the Lady Lions generated 14 hits and were aided by six Lady Blues errors.

Jeniffer Romero led the way with three hits, followed by two hits and three RBIs apiece from Carlee Burks and Chloe Walls, two hits and one RBI each from Lila Mares and Tynlea Wilson, one hit and two RBIs from Hanah Campos, and a hit and an RBI apiece from Kaydence Allen and Jakayla Peek.

In the circle, Allen went the distance and yielded two earned runs on six hits with 11 strikeouts and five walks, while the Brownwood defense finished with three errors.

The Lady Lions grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first as Romero led off the game with a double and scored on Burks’ two-run home run.

Graham answered with three runs in the bottom of the first but Brownwood jumped back in front, 4-3, in the top of the third as Romero again led off the frame with a hit and scored on an RBI double by Burks, who later crossed the plate on an RBI ground out by Campos.

The Lady Blues drew even at 4 in the bottom of the third, but the Lady Lions erupted for six runs in the top of the fourth to seize control, 10-4.

Peek singled home Wilson, who also reached on a base hit, to push Brownwood ahead for good, 5-4. Walls later delivered a bases-clearing, three-RBI double that brought home Peek along with Romero and Peyton Pena, who both reached on more Graham miscues. Campos then singled home Walls, and Mares singled home Campos.

Brownwood pushed the lead to 14-4 in the top of the sixth as Romero again started an inning with a base hit, then Burks reached on a dropped third strike, but an errant throw to first base on the play allowed both base runners to come all the way home for a 12-4 edge. Allen later doubled home Mares, who reached on another error, and Wilson singled home Karina Mata, running for Allen.

Graham added a run in the bottom of the sixth to prevent the run rule.