After opening the season with a victory, the Brownwood Lions labored through the remaining three games of their own baseball tournament, including Saturday’s 7-0 loss to the Midland Greenwood Rangers.
Following a 10-6 triumph over Perryton Thursday night, the Lions were outscored 35-0 to close the tournament, as the offense was limited to five hits over that three-game span.
Asked what he learned about his team during the course of opening weekend, Lions first-year head coach Chris Bright said, “We are young and there are definitely some big growing pains and some habits that need to be broken. We have to learn how to play hard from the start and play all the way through to the finish.”
Against Greenwood Saturday, the Lions broke up a no-hit bid by Isaac Montes in their final trip to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning as Shaxton Simpson and Robbie Robinson reeled off consecutive two-out singles. Simpson, Calder Damron and Daylyn Ansons also drew walks.
“A couple of guys are swinging the bat pretty well,” Bright said. “Wyatt Wolf is an on-base percentage guy, although he didn’t have a lot to show for it tonight, and Robbie Robinson swung the bat well this weekend also. I’m excited about those guys, we just have to bring the others along.”
On the mound, Ansons got the start and worked four innings, surrendering four earned runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts and two walks. Wolf pitched the final two innings and gave up one run on two hits with a pair of strikeouts and two walks.
“Daylyn pitched pretty well tonight, and Garrett Wilkerson pitched really well in the opener on Thursday,” Bright said.
Brownwood fell behind 3-0 in the top of the first inning as the Lions, who surrendered 16 first-inning runs over the course of the tournament, fell victim to an RBI sacrifice fly by Robert Guajardo that scored Sutton Medlin, who singled with one out; an RBI single by Branson Cantrell that plated Bryson Smithhart, who walked; then Montes, who walked, later came home on a wild pitch.
Greenwood stretched the lead to 5-0 in the fourth inning as Ethan Rybolt led off with a double and scored on one of two Brownwood errors, which allowed Ryder Creswell to reach. An RBI sacrifice fly by Reece Watzl brought home Creswell with the final run of the frame.
Single runs crossed the plate for the Rangers in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth Greenwood loaded the bases with no outs and Cantrell scored when Karsen Lewter grounded into a double play. Then in the sixth, Cantrell singled home Guajardo, who also reached on a base hit.
The Lions (1-3) return to the diamond Thursday as they begin play in the three-day Killeen tournament.
“I want to see us be better in our awareness of what’s going on around the ball field,” Bright said. “We let a lot of guys get a lot of extra bases just because we weren’t playing heads up baseball. That’s something we definitely need to improve on come Thursday.”
