Jacket Baseball Opens District with Win at Brownwood

Brownwood, TX– Being that the Jackets had already stranded two base runners in both the first and second innings, when there was two outs and two on in the fourth inning of a 0-0 tie, Stephenville decided to force the action. The Jackets with runners at first and second attempted the double steal on first movement of the Brownwood pitcher. Cade Johnson was at the plate and he put the ball in play on that pitch with a high chopper to the Lion shortstop. The pressure of the runners moving forced an errant throw to first and Johnson was safe. Running from second on the play and never stopping, Kolson Tomlinson beat the throw home from first and the Jackets led 1-0. Stephenville would score three more that inning, all with two outs, and would make that standup, for the 4-0 victory over Brownwood in the district opener.

The second big story line of the contest was the district debut of freshman starting pitcher, Ethan Schindler. The right-hander would pitch the complete game shutout, going seven innings, striking out 10 and only allowing three hits. However, his best achievement of the night was stranding the bases loaded in both the sixth and seventh innings.

Offensively for the Jackets, they had no trouble getting on base. The challenge was batting with runners in scoring position. Stephenville finished the night 1/13 with runners in scoring position. That one hit was a sharp single to left-center by Jay Sauceda to finish out the scoring in the fourth inning. Sauceda finished 2/4 at the plate.

Other Jackets with hits were Gunner Stone with a ground rule double and singles by Trot Jordan and Johnson.

Stephenville moves to 16-6 on the season and 1-0 in district. Game two of the Brownwood series will be in Stephenville at the James T Young baseball field at Stephenville High School on Friday with first pitch at 7pm. Games throughout district can be heard on any of the KSTV FM platforms.