Lions stymie Stephenville, 4-2, to split district baseball series

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The Brownwood Lions scored all their runs in the first inning, then used another stellar pitching performance to hold off the Stephenville Yellow Jackets, 4-2, Friday night at Morris Southall Field to split their two-game District 6-4A baseball series.

The reigning 6-4A champion Lions (9-11, 1-1), who dropped their district opener by a 6-4 count at Stephenville (15-3-2, 1-1) Tuesday, received six innings of one-run, four-hit ball from winning pitcher Logan Flores, who also struck out five and walked four. Harrison Sweeney tossed two-thirds of an inning of relief, but walked two and gave up a hit as Austin Wright came on to record the save, notching the final out on a strikeout after walking his first batter.

Brownwood trailed 1-0 heading to the bottom of the first inning, where Antonio Ybarra led off with a single, Austin Pittman walked, and Wright singled to fill the sacks with no outs. A bases-loaded walk to Robbie Robinson knotted the score at 1 as Ybarra score then, with one out, Evan Escobar reached on an error that allowed Pittman to cross the plate. Leading 2-1, still with just one out, Noah Gonzalez tripled down the left field line to drive in Wright and Escobar for a three-run advantage, which held up until the top of the seventh inning where Stephenville tacked on its final run.

The Lions generated seven hits – three by Wright, two by Ybarra and one each from Robinson and Gonzalez – drew three walks, and were aided by a pair of Stephenville errors.

Brownwood played an error-free game in the field Friday night after committing five miscues Tuesday.