Looking to climb back into the playoff hunt in District 6-4A with four baseball contests remaining, the Brownwood Lions dropped the first of a two-game league series with the Glen Rose Tigers, 9-3, Monday night at Morris Southall Field.
Glen Rose (13-13, 3-4) entered the game with a one-game lead over the Lions (6-19, 1-6) for the final postseason berth from 6-4A, and that cushion has been padded to a pair of games with the rematch slated for 7 p.m. Thursday on the Tigers’ home turf.
Brownwood yielded the game’s first nine runs and was being no-hit until it scored all its runs in the bottom of the sixth inning,
After Shaxton Simpson reached on an error and Wyatt Wolf was ruled safe on a fielder’s choice, Garrett Wilkerson ripped a one-out, two-RBI double to center field for the first Lions hit of the game. Daylyn Ansons then delivered an RBI triple to right field, accounting for Brownwood’s final run.
Carter Massey tacked on one-out single in the seventh for the Lions, who struck out only three times and walked once against Glen Rose pitcher Tripp Jenkins.
The Tigers scored single runs in the first, third and fifth innings, but put the game out of reach with six runs in the top of the sixth inning. A three-RBI double by Ethan McCune, an RBI single by Cash Fletcher, and a two-RBI double by Corbin Hulsey accounted for the damage in the decisive sixth inning.
Easton Bailey also contributed a solo home run for Glen Rose on the first pitch of the ball game.
On the mound for the Lions, Logan Flores and Blayne Stegemoller yielded a total of eight earned runs on nine hits with nine strikeouts and six walks. The Lions defense committed just one error behind them.
