The Brownwood Lady Lions split their first two games at the Battle on the Bayou softball tournament Friday, collecting a 2-1 victory over Shallowater before dropping a 3-2 decision to Burnet.
In the opening victory over Shallowater, the Lady Lions scored both their runs in the bottom of the first inning as Chloe Walls doubled home Carlee Burks, who drew a one-one walk. Later, with two down in the frame, Walls came home when Lila Mares punched a ground ball under the glove of the Shallowater first baseman.
Brownwood pitcher Kaydence Allen escaped bases-loaded jams in both the first and second innings, and stranded seven runners total. Allen also struck out five, walked four and scattered three hits.
Along with Walls, Hanah Campos and Peyton Pena added base hits to the Lady Lions’ tally.
In the loss to Burnet, Brownwood struck first as Jeniffer Romero led off the bottom of the first with a triple to right-center field and scored on an RBI sacrifice bunt by Walls.
Burnet drew even at 1 in the top of the second as Abby Bennight led off with a triple and scored on Lacie Lewis’ RBI ground out.
Burnet then grabbed a 2-1 lead in the top of the third as Presley Crawford reached on an error and scored on an RBI bloop infield single by Lewis.
But the Lady Lions responded in the bottom of the third to knot the score at 2 as Romero doubled with two outs and came home on Carlee Burks’ RBI single into left-center field.
Burnet scored the decisive run in the top of the fourth as Kendall Winkley led off with a double to right-center field and scored on Halle Maxwell’s RBI ground out to shortstop.
The Lady Lions finished with four hits – two by Romero and one each by Walls and Campos.
In the circle, Allen yielded three runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in six innings.
Brownwood concludes tournament play Saturday with a 10 a.m. game against Junction followed by a 2 p.m. contest against Hawley.
