Junior Varsity Lions drop three straight games

Lions vs. Del Valle
The Del Valle Cardinals came to Lockhart for a District game on March 31 went away with a victory against the Lions. It was a game with a lot of runs and too many errors on both teams.
Del Valle ended up with 15 runs on 13 hits (including one home run, a double, and five RBIs from the Cardinals’ short stop) and eight errors.
The Lions

ended up with 12 runs on seven hits and produced eight errors on defense. Lockhart left six runners stranded on base.
Will Rodriguez started for the Lions with seven hits, 11 runs and one base-on-ball. Josh Flores came into the game in the middle of the fifth and pitched for six hits, five runs, one base-on-ball and four strikeouts. Rodriguez’s stats took the loss.
On offense, Sammy Yanez led the Lions (2-2 with two runs scored, one RBI and one stolen base). Will Rodriguez went 1-2 with one run and one RBI. Cody James went 1-3, Josh Flores was 1-3 with one RBI and Joseph Garcia was 1-4 with three runs and one RBI. Ryan Hitter went 1-4 with one RBI and one stolen base, while Tyler Crawford had three runs and Paul Juarez had three walks.
According to Coach James Patton, the Lions kept playing the game and never gave up, but could not recover the game after eight errors.

Lions vs. Hays –
Doubleheader
The Hays Rebels came to Lockhart to play a doubleheader, picking up a contest from a rained-out season opener.
The first game had Joseph Garcia on the hill for the Lions.
The game was 2-1 in favor of the Rebels until the bottom of the third, when the Rebels sent 13 players to the plate and scored seven runs on nine hits.
Josh Flores came in at the top of the fourth gave up two hits, but shut down the Hays scoring.
Final stats on the Rebels were nine runs on 15 hits. Garcia got the toss on the mound after the 9-3 loss.
The Lions had plenty of offense, but left nine runners stranded on base.
“We just left too many runners on base and didn’t produce at the end of the batting order,” Patton said. “Bases were loaded twice and in two innings, we had two runners aboard.”
At the plate, the Lions were led by Hitter, who went 3-4 with two runs scored and one stolen base. Rodriguez went 2-2 with a double, and Flores was 1-2 with one RBI. James went 1-3 with one RBI. Juarez and Ryan Mendez both went 1-3, and Sammy Yanez was 1-4 with a double and one RBI.

In the second game, the Lions found themselves in the same situation, giving up a big inning and eventually taking an 11-1 loss.
Rodriguez got the nod on the mound for the Lions and pitched four strong innings, but the bottom fell out in the fifth. The Rebels picked up seven runs on three hits and two base-on-balls. Five of those runs were credited to Rodriguez, with the other two going to Flores, who came to the hill in the middle of the inning.
Two errors and two squeeze plays helped produce the runs in this inning.
The Rebels totaled 11 runs on only six hits, with seven runners left on base. Once again, Rodriguez added the loss at the mound for the Lions.
On offense the Lockhart JV left 10 runners on base.
“Again we are getting runners on base but we are just not moving them around to score,” Patton said. “We had bases loaded three times and couldn’t produce.” Leaders at the plate were Hitter (3-3 with a double, one stolen base and the lone run scored), Yanez (2-3 with one stolen base), Rodriguez (1-2) and Flores (1-3 with the only RBI).
The JV traveled to New Braunfels Canyon on Monday and will be back at home on Friday, April 11 to square off against the Knights of Schertz Steele.
Check the time for this game as Steele does not have a Freshman baseball team.
(Courtesy of James Patton)