The Brownwood Lady Lions trimmed a four-run deficit down to one, but the No. 1 ranked Brock Lady Eagles eventually pulled away for a 13-3 victory in the District 6-4A and regular season softball finale Thursday.
Despite the loss, the Lady Lions (15-11, 5-5) finished alone in second place in the final league standings and will be the No. 1 seed from District 6 in the Class 4A Division I playoffs. Brownwood will face San Angeo Lake View, the overall fourth place team out of District 5 and second seed in 4A Division I, next weekend in bi-district playoff action.
Trailing 4-0 against Brock (25-0-2, 10-0) Thursday heading to the bottom of the fourth inning, the Lady Lions made all their offensive noise in that frame.
Chloe Walls reached on an error to start the inning, then Hanah Campos followed with a single to left field. Lila Mares then drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. Kaydence Allen stepped to the plate and grounded back to the pitcher, who threw to home plate for the first out of the inning. Attempting to turn a double play, the catcher instead threw wildly to first base and down the right field line which in turn allowed Campos, Mares, and Allen to all score.
Tynlea Wilson then doubled and Jakayla Peek followed with a single, but both runners were left on base as the Lady Lions were unable to push in front.
Brock immediately answered with five runs in the top of the fifth to establish a 9-3 cushion, and tacked on four more runs in its final at-bat in the top of the seventh. The Lady Eagles started the scoring with two runs each in the first and second frames.
The Lady Lions collected seven hits – two by Allen and one apiece from Campos, Mares, Wilson, Peek and Jeniffer Romero.
In the circle, Wilson and Allen teamed up to yield 12 earned runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts and nine walks. The Brownwood defense committed a pair of errors behind them.
