“It’s hard to lose when the other team doesn’t score.”
Those were the words from a jovial head coach Blake Sandford following the Brownwood Lions’ season-opening 3-0 victory Monday night over the San Angelo Lake View Chiefs in the first game at the new Morris Southall Field.
Noah Gonzalez pitched six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts, five walks and one hit allowed, and Austin Wright worked a flawless seventh inning, striking out the Chiefs in order to push the Lions’ strikeout total to 13 on the night.
“We had really good pitching,” Sandford said. “Noah did a really good job. He got into some high ball counts and was able to get out of them. We pride ourselves on trying to play really good defense and error-free defense and that’s certainly a great spot for our pitchers to load up and really be aggressive when they’re delivering.”
Offensively, the Lions pushed all three of their runs across the plate in the bottom of the second inning, which proved to be more than enough production on this night.
“I’ve seen a bit of progression from our first scrimmage to our first game where we’re putting the ball in play,” Sandford said. “The kids work hard at running the bases and trying to beat throws out. The hits will fall, they’ll come for those guys if they keep swinging the bat.”
The Lions relied on small ball, a staple of Sandford’s offensive approach, to generate their three runs.
The bottom of the second began for Brownwood with Jack Field reaching on one of two Lake View errors for the game. Field moved to second base on a steal and third base after tagging on a fly out by Robbie Robinson. With one down and Field on third, Dario Rodriguez laid down a squeeze bunt that scored Field for a 1-0 Lions lead, and Rodriguez beat the throw to first. Michael Badillo followed with an infield single between third base and shortstop, and Wyatt Wolf reached on a line drive to right field that was dropped, allowing Rodriguez to score. Antonio Ybarra then came to the plate and laid down another squeeze bunt that brought home Badillo with the final run of the night.
“We’ve been squeezing for 30 years,” Sandford said of his teams’ offensive philosophy. “When we get runners on we want to be opportunistic. We’re not afraid to do that kind of stuff. The kids buy into it, so I’m proud of them.”
Robinson and Wolf added infield singles in the fourth inning for the Lions, the final of Brownwood’s four hits on the night, but the maroon and white were unable to extend their advantage.
The Lions (1-0) are currently scheduled to host three days of Brown County tournament action Thursday through Saturday at the new Morris Southall Field, but the schedule will likely be tweaked due to the impending arctic weather.