ABILENE – The Brownwood Lions jumped out to a pair of 2-0 leads Saturday, but were unable to hold either as the Lubbock Estacado Matadors rallied for victories of 3-2 and then 4-3 in eight innings to capture a Class 4A Division I Region I baseball bi-district series at Abilene Cooper.
The Lions (13-18) opened the series with a 2-1 victory in Friday’s best of three opener against Estacado (15-16-1).
“We were hoping to win it and it didn’t go our way, but that’s the way baseball goes,” said Lions head coach Blake Sandford. “You win some and you lose some, but my takeaway is our kids don’t quit. As a community, as coaches, as parents, we love the boys and we’re proud of their drive and their commitment. You can throw the mistakes out the window because at the end of the day we’re going to sit there and look at what kind of young men we are raising and what are we giving them as far as lessons for their life. If they do effort like they did today, they can do anything they set their minds to. They’re tremendous young men and you just love to coach them. I’m proud of these guys, and again I wished we’d have won, but I’m really thankful that these parents and the community gave me the opportunity to coach them. That’s a blessing for me, getting to coach these guys.”
Tied at 2 in the top of the eighth inning of Saturday’s series finale, Noah Gonzalez and Dario Rodriguez reached on consecutive two-out singles off Estacado reliever Nic Lucio, who then walked Durham Brown to load the bases and issued another free pass to Austin Pittman, which resulted in Gonzalez scoring the go-ahead run.
But in the bottom of the eighth, Matador Darrin Tristan drew a lead walk against Pittman, Christian Martinez reached on a one-out walk and both runners moved up on a base on an errant pick-off attempt at second. Stephen Rodriguez then doubled to deep center field over Jack Field’s head to plate both runners and complete the Estacado comeback.
The Lions took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Wyatt Wolf and Austin Wright walked with one out off Estacado starter Zach Salazar. Field then singled to load the bases and a slow roller down the third base line by Robbie Robinson resulted in a wild throw to first base, and Wolf and Wright both scored.
Following a single by Gonzalez, pinch-runner Julius Lara – running for Robinson – broke for home from third base on a delayed double steal. Lara, however, plowed over catcher Noah Cervantez, which resulted in the final out of the inning, a dugout-clearing melee, and the ejection of both Lara and Cervantez.
Estacado drew even at 2 in the bottom of the sixth as Tristan singled with two outs, Mateo Sanchez reached on a throwing error, and Martinez doubled over Gonzalez’s head in left field.
In Saturday’s second game, the two teams combined to strand 23 base runners – 13 for Estacado and 10 for Brownwood – as 10 hits were tallied and 18 walks or hit batters were committed.
Saturday’s first game again featured a 2-0 lead for the Lions as Robinson led off the top of the second with a single off Estacado pitcher Jose Alcorta’s glove and later scored when Rodriguez laid down a bunt in front of the mound and the throw home was late.
Then in the third inning, Ybarra started the frame with a walk and Wolf followed with single. A wild pitch moved the runners over a base then, with two outs, another wild pitch during Robinson’s at-bat allowed Ybarra to race home for the second and final Lion run.
Estacado responded with single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to forge in front. Martinez singled and later scored on a passed ball during Cervantez’s at-bat in the fourth, Ke’Shon Coleman reached on an error in the fifth and scored on Tristan’s single, and in the sixth Martinez drew a lead walk and came home on a two-out RBI single to Jusiah Garcia to push Estacado in front.
Gonzalez got the start in Saturday’s first game for the Lions and allowed two earned runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and four walks. Logan Flores started the second contest and yielded no runs on two hits with two strikeouts and eight walks. Pittman tossed 2.2 innings of relief to close out the series and was tagged for four runs – one earned, on three hits with three strikeouts and three walks.
Regarding the 10 senior Lions who concluded their careers Saturday, Sandford said, “As a group they worked really hard, as hard as any group I’ve had in 30 years. Their commitment, they show up all the time, they communicate with the rest of the team on what we need to do., we’ve talked about leadership since August and they took hold of that and made it part of their habits instead of just a thing. They showed character and built up our youngsters and led by example.”
Estacado advances to face Decatur (17-14-1) in area playoff action.
