With the defense of their District 6-4A baseball championship set to begin Tuesday night, the Brownwood Lions halted a five-game drought Saturday afternoon at Morris Southall Field with a 6-2 victory over Class 5A Abilene High.

“I thought the kids played really well as a team, they had great performances, and they believed in themselves, and that’s the most important thing,” said Lions head coach Blake Sandford.

The six runs for the Lions (8-10) – on seven hits, one walk and a couple of Abilene (11-6-1) errors – is the most in a game for Brownwood since March 7, a span of five games in which the maroon and white crossed the plate just nine times, an average of less than two runs per outing.

“I knew it was going to come,” Sandford said of the offense. “We’ve faced the schedule we’ve faced and baseball is a game where it’s hard to get hits. You just have to stay with it and work every day, and those kids have worked their tails off at practice taking lots of cuts.”

Austin Wright and Wyatt Wolf led the way with a pair of hits apiece, while Austin Pittman, Robbie Robinson and Antonio Ybarra each contributed one.

On the mound, Logan Flores picked up the win as he worked five innings and allowed two runs on two hits with three strikeouts and three base on balls. Harrison Sweeney tossed two scoreless innings of relief with two strikeouts and a pair of walks. Abilene left five base runners stranded.

“Pitching has been a hallmark for us,” Sandford said. “Coach (Caleb) Hill does a really job with our pitchers and any time you get both guys up there getting a chance to let our defense work for them, then we’re doing a good job.”

Both of Abilene’s runs were driven in on doubles by Camp Churchill, which followed Xavier De La Cruz reaching on a walk in the third inning and being a hit by pitch in the fifth.

The Lions jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, as all three runs came home after Brownwood started the frame with the two batters being retired.

Michael Badillo reached on a two-out throwing error then Dario Rodriguez drew a walk to keep the inning alive. Ybarra followed with an RBI single to left-center field to plate Badillo before Wolf drew a walk. Pittman then stepped to the plate and ripped a two-RBI single to into right field that brought home Rodriguez and Ybarra to cap the scoring in the frame.

“If we can score when we have two outs, if we can be opportunistic and don’t die and we can pass the bat to the next player in the line up, then we’ll have chances,” Sandford said. “We had some bunts, hit and runs, things like that we were trying to do to create a little chaos.”

The Lions pushed their lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning as Badillo drew a lead-off walk then stole second base ahead of a sacrifice bunt by Rodriguez. Then, during Ybarra’s at-bat, Badillo was able to score from third base on a wild pitch.

Brownwood tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the fifth as Pittman reached on an error to start the frame, then Wright doubled to right center-field. Robinson laid down a bunt single in front of the plate that scored Pittman, while Jack Field followed with an RBI ground out that brought home Wright.

The Lions head to Stephenville at 7 p.m. Tuesday, then host the Yellow Jackets at 7 p.m. Friday, in their first 6-4A baseball series of the season.

“They’re ready to prove they belong in the district and ready to get out,” Sandford said in regard to how he feels about the team heading into the 6-4A slate. “That’s all we can ever ask for is a chance. I think they have a good feeling that their hard work is starting to pay off.”