ABILENE – The Brownwood Lions moved within one victory of a third consecutive baseball bi-district championship as they edged Lubbock Estacado, 2-1, Friday at Cooper High School in the first game of a best of three Class 4A Division I Region I first-round series.

Games 2 and 3, if needed, will be back at Cooper at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Tied at 1 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Lions (13-16) capitalized on a critical Estacado (13-16-1) mistake to score what would be the decisive run.

With one out, Austin Pittman and Antonio Ybarra reached on consecutive singles. With two outs and Pittman on third and Wyatt Wolf at first after Ybarra was erased on a fielder’s choice, Estacado attempted to pick off Pittman at third base. The throw to the bag was errant, however, which allowed Pittman to race home with the go-ahead run.

Austin Wright tossed his third consecutive complete game and secured the victory as he allowed just one earned run on six hits with six strikeouts and five walks.

The Lions grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Robbie Robinson led off the frame with a single, then courtesy runner Durham Brown stole second base ahead of an RBI single to right field by Dario Rodriguez.

Estacado pushed its only run across the plate in the top of the fourth to draw even at 1 as Orlando Ortiz walked with two outs and scored from first base on an RBI double to the gap by Jusiah Garcia.

Like Estacado, Brownwood also tallied six hits with two coming from Rodriguez and one apiece by Pittman, Wright, Ybarra and Noah Gonzalez against pitcher Landyn Hinojos.

The winner of the Brownwood-Estacado series will face Decatur in the area round next weekend.