STEPHENVILLE – After rallying for victories in their first two meetings against the rival Stephenville Yellow Jackets, the Brownwood Lions led from start to finish Friday night as they completed a three-game district sweep and earned the 6-4A baseball championship outright, 6-2.
“Hats off to our kids. They’ve done a really good job and they’ve earned this,” Lions first-year head coach Blake Sandford said of clinching Brownwood’s first district championship since 2019. “I’m really proud of them, every single one, for buying into this whole deal, the intensity and toughness we’re bringing to them, and they’re following suit with that. It’s hard to win varsity games in any sport but these kids have done a really good job of just staying with it.”
The Lions (20-5-1, 9-1) – who now lead second-place Stephenville (16-9-1, 4-4) by three games in the loss column with only two district contests remaining – secured their 20th victory of the season by scoring single runs in the first and second innings before generating four runs in the third inning, which proved to be the difference in the contest.
“We talk all the time about being in control and we want to be what decides what we do instead of something else or someone else,” Sandford said. “We take the game to others instead of letting other factors, decisions or calls go against us. We have to overcome adversity and the mindset is to be a decisive factor in our own lives.”
Jordyn Nickerson led off the game in the top of the first inning with a triple, Gavin Brandstetter drew a one-out walk, and Logan Posey’s RBI fielder’s choice plated Nickerson for a 1-0 Brownwood advantage.
In the second inning, Austin Pittman reached on a dropped third strike to start the frame and moved to third base with two outs, where he scored on Antonio Ybarra’s RBI single to left field for a 2-0 cushion.
Stephenville cut the deficit in half to 2-1 in the bottom of the second as Tyler Hicks led off with a walk and scored with two outs following a wild pitch that allowed him to advance to third base, and an errant throw to the bag on the same play that permitted him to trot home.
But the Lions quickly regained the momentum in the top of the third inning and never looked back.
David Turner led off with a walk, then Brandstetter singled up the middle ahead of an RBI double by Posey down the left field line to boost the lead to 3-1. With one out, Pittman walked to load the bases and with two down, Eli Hall smashed a bases-clearing, three-RBI double into the left-center field gap to stretch Brownwood’s lead to 6-1.
“That was timely and he was due for one,” Sandford said of Hill’s clutch double. “Our guys have worked really hard from not getting successive base hits or popping up, to trying to really barrel the ball and have competitive at-bats. They did a really good job with that tonight.”
Stephenville mustered just one more run in the bottom of the fifth inning as Kutter Stone led off with a walk, moved to second base on an errant pick-off attempt at first, and scored on a one-out RBI single by Mason Haynes.
Yovani Figueroa and Noah Gonzalez combined to give up two runs – none earned – on five hits with eight strikeouts and five walks. The Lion defense committed two errors behind them.
“We were able to scratch across some runs early, then went into a lull, but the pitchers kept it where it needed to be,” Sandford said. “It was another strong outing by our pitching staff as a whole. We started off playing pretty good defense and made some plays behind them against a pretty-good hitting Stephenville team that puts the ball in play and doesn’t strike out a lot.”
Offensively, the Lions finished with five hits – doubles by Hill and Posey and singles by Ybarra, Brandstetter and Wright.
The Lions have their district bye next week, but will face San Antonio Alamo Heights at 6 p.m. Thursday in Burnet in non-district action. Brownwood then wraps up the 6-4A slate at Glen Rose on Tuesday, April 23 and at home against Glen Rose on April 26.
Regarding any final thoughts from Friday night, Sandford added, “I want to say thank you to our fans, we traveled well and it’s just awesome to be a Brownwood Lion.”