Lions drop Crockett to open season

By Alonzo Garza
POST-REGISTER

The Lockhart Lion Varsity and Freshman baseball teams got off to a great start on (Fat) Tuesday, Feb. 20. Their season opener against Austin Crockett turned out to be a 16-9 win for the freshman team and a 7-1 win for the Varsity team. The Junior Varsity team will play at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb 21 at City Park so there was no fin

al score at press time.

Varsity
The Varsity Lions played well throughout the entire night and they looked great playing the game, too. They came out sporting their brand new, bright white uniforms and looking very much like a Norman Rockwell painting. The Lions made a couple of errors but none of them were big enough to disrupt their game in a big way. They worked their way through the first two innings without any runs and no team scored until the third inning.
“For being our first game, our pitchers did all right. They did what they had to do to get ahead.” said Head Baseball Coach Mark Elder. “The batting was slow at first, but then they started to make contact so we were able to put some runs on the board.” The runs came in during the third inning and all of a sudden the Lions were up 6-0.
The Varsity team worked well together. The scrimmages obviously helped the team learn how to read each other. The team effort was evident throughout the night. Some of the highlights came from Michael Schulle, Jimmy Mendez and A.J. Crider. Schulle helped get the win for the team. He pitched four innings, had eight strikeouts and two base on balls. Mendez pitched two innings, had four strikeouts and one earned run. Crider pitched one inning and had three strikeouts. The runs came from Steven Crider who was one for three with a double and three RBIs and Landon Buckner who was one for three with two RBIs.
“Defense made a few errors but overall I thought we did a good job against a good quality team,” said Elder. The game ended in seven innings and a 7-1 victory for the Varsity team.

Freshmen
The Freshman team won despite a tight game against Crockett. Both teams did great offensively. The Lions kept going back and forth with the lead until Crockett just stopped scoring. It was a total team effort. The freshmen team fought hard to stay in the lead and it paid off big in the end. They did a good job of keeping their head in the game and cheering each other on. Like the Varsity team, the freshmen won their game as a team.
Pitching for the freshmen was Sam Yanez who started the game pitching two and one third innings giving up six runs. Will Rodriguez came in and pitched two and two third innings giving up two runs and Brian Martinez came in to close the game giving up only one run.
“I thought the freshman played really well for the first game of the year. We look forward to playing in the Hays Tournament this weekend,” said Coach Trey Crampton.
The win was truly a team effort. Everyone from one to nine scored at least once.
Hopefully the freshman will continue to work together to make this a successful season.
Their next game is on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. against Hays.
The Lion Baseball teams are having a tournament on Feb. 22, 23 and 24. We encourage everyone to come out and support the Lions. See you at the game.
agarza@post-register.com