MINERAL WELLS – The Brownwood Lady Lions inched closer toward the playoffs by completing a District 6-4A softball sweep of the Mineral Wells Lady Rams, thanks to Monday’s 14-4 road victory.
The Lady Lions (9-11, 3-3) are currently alone in fourth with two district outings remaining – at home against first-place Graham (17-7, 3-1) at 6:30 p.m. Friday and at Stephenville (10-11, 3-2), which is tied with Glen Rose (15-11, 3-2) for second place, on Tuesday, April 16. Mineral Wells (10-19, 1-5) is two games back of Brownwood with two games left, but three-way ties could still factor into the final outcome.
The Lady Lions – who edged Mineral Wells, 9-8, in the first meeting on March 22 – trailed 3-2 after one inning the rematch, but erupted for four runs in the third inning, five in the fourth and three final runs in the fifth inning en route to their most runs scored in a game this season.
Brownwood generated 15 hits – led by three each from Jeniffer Romero and Peyton Pena, two apiece from Carlee Burks, Chloe Walls and Tynlea Wilson, and one each from Jakayla Peek, Lila Mares, and Mykaela Mendoza. Wilson sparked Brownwood with three RBIs trailed by two each from Walls and Pena and one apiece from Peek, Mares and Mendoza.
In the circle, Wilson yielded three earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts and two walks. The Brownwood defense committed a pair of errors.
The Lady Lions grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Burks led off with a single and scored on an RBI triple by Walls. Wilson then singled home Walls.
Down 3-2 in the third, Romero led off a single, Walls reached on an error and Wilson followed with an RBI single to knot the score at 3. Walls later scored on a passed ball and Mares reached on an error that brought home Trinity Roberts, running for Wilson. Mendoza followed with an RBI single that plated Mares for a 6-3 lead.
Brownwood stretched the advantage to 11-3 in the fourth as Burks doubled, Romero singled and Walls reached on an error to load the bases with no outs. Burks scored on a wild pitch before Peek reached on an error that plated Romero. Pena and Mendoza followed with back-to-back RBI singles that brought home Walls and Peek. Pena then came home on the back end of a double steal with Mares with the eight-run advantage.
After Mineral Wells scratched across its fourth run in the bottom of the fourth, Brownwood scored three final runs in the fifth to enforce the 10-run mercy rule. Burks reached on an error, Romero singled and Walls came through with an RBI double for the 12th run. An RBI ground out by Wilson plated Romero, and Walls scored on an RBI single by Pena.