Lady Blues fall in wild 10-inning Brownwood game

It’s not often a team outhits their opponents 20-9 and still ends up with the loss, but that’s what happened when the Graham Lady Blues traveled to Brownwood for a district matchup Friday, April 12.

In a game that required three extra innings, the Lady Blues took a loss 10-9 against the Lady Lions in a wild affair. Graham scored nine runs, had 20 hits but also committed eight errors defensively to aid Brownwood in their winning efforts.

The two teams battled hard and found themselves tied 7-7 at the end of the regulation seven innings. They went scoreless for the next two innings before Graham scored two runs in the top half of the tenth inning. But Brownwood answered right back with three runs in the bottom of the tenth as the Lady Lions walked off with the win.

In the tenth inning, Peyton Dobbs singled and came around to score on a ground ball from Larissa Warren that turned into an error and gave Graham an 8-7 lead. Reese Calhoun then knocked a double to score Mayci Ryans to put the team up 9-7.

But in Brownwood’s half of the tenth inning, Graham’s defensive struggles contributed to the Lady Lions’ comeback. Back-to-back errors led to a run and another runner getting to second base to make it 9-8. A single and an intentional walk loaded the bases for Brownwood with only one out.

Calhoun, in her fifth inning of work in the game after taking over for starter Zoey Harrell who went five innings, walked the next batter to score a run and tie the game at 9-9. The next batter hit a pop-up to shortstop that Olga Morales fielded. However, it was deep enough for Brownwood’s runner on third to tag up and head for home, which she did and gave the Lady Lions the walkoff win.

Graham had held the lead for the majority of the game after falling down 3-2 after the first inning. In the top of the third, catcher Meagan Brooks blasted a home run — her sixth of the season — to tie the game at 3-3. Three singles later, Emily Lawson scored to put the team ahead 4-3.

The Lady Blues’ offense kept things up an inning later as they tacked on three more runs. Brooks had another big hit with a double to score Calhoun, Lawson singled to center field to score Paris Tate and Brooks eventually scored on a fielder’s choice from Morales to make it 7-3 in Graham’s favor.

But little by little, Brownwood fought back to tie things up and force extra innings. The Lady Lions scored two runs in their half of the fourth inning and another two runs in the fifth inning to tie things up at 7-7. Neither team came close to scoring in the final two frames as they moved into extras.

After a long, drawn-out evening with both sides doing what they could to end the game, Brownwood came out on top in the 10th inning to send Graham home with the loss. The result left Graham at 19-8 on the season with a 4-2 record in district.

Harrell, Calhoun and Brooks all finished the game with four hits each, tied for the team lead. Brooks scored three runs and drove in two while Lawson also finished with two RBIs.

Nearly every player who got in the game recorded a hit, but it wasn’t enough to pull out the win.

After Tuesday night’s game against Glen Rose, the Lady Blues will wrap up the regular season Friday, April 19 on the road at Mineral Wells with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.