Four Brownwood Lions pitchers were able to strand 12 Abilene Cooper base runners, but the visiting Cougars managed to scratch three runs across the plate in the fifth inning, the difference in a 4-3 non-district decision at Morris Southall Field Saturday afternoon.
Wyatt Wolf, Daylyn Ansons, Robbie Robinson and Garrett Wilkerson teamed up to yield four earned runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts, seven walks and a pair of hits batters, while the Brownwood (5-15, 0-2) defense committed just one error.
“A non-district game in the middle of district play you want to see arms that haven’t pitched in a while to keep them sharp if we need them in district play,” said Lions first-year head coach Chris Bright. “Wyatt Wolf did a good job, pitched out of stuff trouble, and the others guys Robbie and Garrett found some trouble a little bit but did a good job by the getting back in the zone. Our defense has really played well the last few games, and they helped them get out of some jams.”
Trailing 2-l in the top of the fifth inning, Cooper’s Joel Soto – who also tossed a complete game on the mound to notch the win – led off with a single and moved to second base on an error on the same play. Then Elijah Sotelo and Carson Boone followed with back-to-back RBI doubles off Ansons, and an RBI sacrifice fly from Mason Cole allowed the Cougars (10-12-1) to open a 4-2 edge.
Offensively, the Lions tallied five hits – one each by Shaxton Simpson, Cannon Calvert, Harrison Sweaney, Carter Massey and Aviud Gomez – and manufactured single runs in the first, fourth and fifth innings.
“Our bats are a little cold right now, they’ve been a little cold the last couple of games,” Bright said. “We’re just struggling to find ways to get guys home when we’ve got them on base. We’ve got a lot of guys pressing right now which is not a good recipe for success. We’ve got to have our guys relaxed and comfortable in the box, seeing the baseball and driving the baseball whenever we have runners on base.”
The Lions drew even at 1 in the bottom of the first as Simpson reached on a one-out single ahead of a two-out walk by Wilkerson, and Calvert delivered a game-tying RBI single to center field.
Brownwood grabbed a 2-1 advantage in the bottom of the fourth as Sweaney singled and advanced to third on a two-base error, then later crossed the plate on a one-out RBI single to shallow center field by Massey.
The Lions trimmed the deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth as Simpson drew a lead walk and scored on Gomez’s two-out opposite field RBI double down the left field line, but Brownwood was unable to muster any additional runs.
The loss was seventh straight for the Lions (5-15, 0-2), who return to District 6-4A action at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Graham (6-10-1, 0-2) looking to jump into the thick of the playoff race.
As for the rest of the league play, Bright said, “Our guys are going to fight, but we have to get runners on, over, and in. I want to see them trust what we work on every day and trust when they’re in the box they’re the best guy for that position at that time and get the job done.”
