GRAHAM – After much of the regular season felt like a roller coaster ride, the Brownwood Lady Lions have found their groove in the playoffs, as their fourth straight victory secured a second consecutive sweep, an area championship, and a trip to the Class 4A Division I Region I semifinals.
The Lady Lions capped an area round sweep of the Decatur Lady Eagles with a 12-8 victory Friday afternoon, on the heels of a 7-5 triumph Thursday night. Next up for Brownwood (19-11) is a third-round playoff date with Dumas (30-5) as Game 1 is set for 6 p.m. Thursday with Games 2 and 3, if needed, to follow at 11 a.m. Friday – all at Lubbock Cooper High School.
“There was never any doubt in the coaches’ minds that these girls could do this, it just came down to whether or not they believed they could do it,” said Lady Lions head coach Cherita Munguia, who has guided the program to the third round of the playoffs for the first time since 2019. “It’s been a roller coaster but at the end of the day we’re a family, and families have struggles. When we come together and play like I know that we can, and everybody from me to the managers come out and do their jobs, it makes a huge difference and you saw that today.’’
Offensively, the Lady Lions put constant pressure on Decatur as they generated 13 hits off pitcher Alexa Beeson, and Brownwood was assisted by eight Lady Eagles errors as well.
Carlee Burks, Chloe Walls, Lila Mares, Tynlea Wilson and Maitlyn Esquivel contributed two hits apiece, while Jeniffer Romero, Hanah Campos and Jakayla Peek each collected one. Romero scored a team-high three runs while Burks and Wilson crossed the plate twice.
“One thing I was really excited about was the pitcher had a lot more velocity than we’ve seen lately,” Munguia said. “Half of our district has velocity and the other half is more spin pitchers. This girl had a little bit of both, but we were aggressive and also at the same time making sure we only swung at our pitches.”
Tied at 1 after one inning, the Lady Lions yielded four runs in the top of the second inning and faced a 5-1 deficit. How Brownwood responded in the bottom of the second proved to be the turning point of the contest.
With one out in the second, Wilson doubled and Peek followed with a single. Facing two outs with two runners on, Romero’s dribbler to second base wasn’t fielded cleanly, as the Brownwood center fielder reached base to prolong the inning and Wilson and Peek scored to trim the deficit to 5-3. Burks reached on another Lady Eagle error to extend the frame, then a single to right field by Walls got past the Decatur defender, allowing Romero and Burks to trot home and knot the score at 5. After Kaydence Allen reached on a dropped third strike, another error during Mares’ at-bat resulted in Walls scoring and Brownwood taking its first lead of the contest, 6-5.
“That was huge,” Munguia said of Brownwood’s second-inning answer. “I wanted to know who we were. Were we going to be the type that continued to fall in a hole and would have to come back and play another game, or were we going to match them point for point until we get our feet underneath us, and that’s what we did. We were able to take the lead and keep it.”
Decatur briefly pulled even again at 6 in the top of third on a two-out solo home run, but the Lady Lions scored twice in the bottom of the frame to take an 8-6 advantage they never relinquished.
Brownwood’s third inning featured Peek reaching on a one-out error, followed by infield singles from Esquivel and Romero to fill the sacks. With two outs, a pop up by Walls was dropped in the oufield, allowing Peek and Esquivel to cross the plate for an 8-6 Lady Lion edge.
Leading 8-7 heading to the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Lions established some breathing room as Mares, Campos and Wilson singled in order to began the frame. A bases-loaded walk to Peek plated Mares with the ninth Brownwood run. An RBI infield single by Esquivel followed to bring home Campos, then Romero reached on a fielder’s choice as a throw to plate to attempt to retire Wilson was off target, making the score 11-7.
Decatur tacked on a final run in the top of the sixth, but Brownwood matched the Lady Eagles’ effort in the bottom half as Romero walked to start the frame and came home on an RBI double by Burks for the final four-run margin.
In the circle, Allen allowed eight runs on seven hits with four walks and two hit batters, but she fanned six batters as well, pushing her season strikeout total over 200.
“Kaydence got her 200th strikeout today which was huge and Chloe did a great job back there framing up,” Munguia said. “The zone was difficult when it came to keeping the ball away from certain hitters, but the defense did an excellent job talking to her and played well behind her. There were pop ups in some spots where we usually don’t make those plays, but we did today.”
