GAME STORY: Long ball, four-run fifth fuel Fort Worth Brewer past Wylie in series opener

STEPHENVILLE — For 4½ innings, the Wylie and Fort Worth Brewer softball teams were locked in a back-and-forth battle in the opener of the Region I-5A Division II finals series Thursday at the Stephenville softball field.

But a four-run bottom of the fifth highlighted by a trio of big extra-base hits provided the Lady Bears the separation they needed to pull away for an 8-4 win and an early advantage in the best-of-three affair that will continue with Game 2 at 7 p.m. Friday.

Included in Brewer’s pivotal outburst was a pair of home runs — two of four for the Lady Bears on the day — which served as the difference in a game that was otherwise very competitive.

Wylie matched BHS in hits, collecting eight for the game, and the Lady Bulldogs earned three times as many free bases as their adversaries, drawing a pair of walks while adding four hit batsmen. But coach Shelby Elkins’ team couldn’t do as much as with its base traffic as the Lady Bears managed to with the long ball, which left the Lady ‘Dogs on the wrong end of a four-run margin.

“We knew going into it that Brewer was a long ball type of team,” Elkins said. “They have a lot of power numbers, definitely compared to us. So we knew that going into it, but we also knew they hadn’t faced someone like (Wylie pitcher) Avie (Faries) on the mound.

“We had more hits than them, but we just need to string them together. We need to play some fast ball and we need to use this fire to carry us into this next game.”

Serving as the visitors in the game, Wylie got off to a great start, plating a pair of runs in the top of the first on run-scoring hits by Kaegan McCann and Gabrielle Volz.

After Ella Bruning roped a one-out single to center and Wynslow Miller followed with a hit by pitch, McCann put the Lady Bulldogs on the board with a double to left and Volz added a second run on a bunt single to first.

With runners on first and second and one out after that, Wylie had an opportunity to put even more pressure on Brewer starter Cozette Tyson, but the Lady Bulldogs left a pair of runners on base — a development that would become an unfortunate trend throughout the game.

“We had more girls in scoring position and we had more hits than them. They only scored on home runs pretty much,” said Elkins, whose team stranded 11 baserunners, including nine in scoring position.

Wylie’s first-inning lead lasted just the half inning, unfortunately, as Avery Welch followed the Lady Bulldogs’ only error with her first of two two-run homers to even the score in the home half of the first.

The Lady Bulldogs regained the lead in the second, when Kayelor George drew a leadoff walk and scored on a Brewer error, but Wylie saw a chance at a bigger inning squelched by an inning-ending double play before leaving a runner at second during a scoreless third.

The Lady Bears made Wylie pay in the bottom of that frame, when Haylie Jimenez singled ahead of Welch’s second bomb to put BHS back on top 4-3.

Wylie answered again, tying the game in the fourth on a double by Bruning after George and Lainee O’Dell had led off the inning by getting hit by pitches. But the Lady Bulldogs couldn’t cash in further on a second-and-third, one-out situation, allowing Brewer to take the lead for good with its big fifth inning.

Charisma Johnson put the Lady Bears back on top with a solo blast to left, before Ava Pena tacked on another run with an inside-the-park home run off the very top of the fence in center field.

Faries then recorded a pair of outs around an intentional walk of Welch, giving the Lady Bulldogs an opportunity to get out of the inning with no further damage done. But Tyson slapped a two-out single to center to extend the frame, and Samantha Aguirre drove a double into the left-center field gap to bring in two key insurance runs.

Down 8-4 after that, the Lady Bulldogs didn’t go down quietly. Elkins’ team got runners to second and third with one out in the sixth but couldn’t get either home, before putting two more runners on in the seventh ahead of O’Dell, who smashed a hard line drive up the middle that Tyson somehow snared in the circle for the game’s final out.

“Our motto this year is grit, and I’ve talked since Week 1 about these girls — how hard they fight and how classy they are,” Elkins said. “They play this game the correct way, and they play with a lot of tenacity.

“That’s a big thing that we’ve been pressing this year, that if we play hard, play the game right and play with class that we will come out on top.”

Wylie was led offensively by Kinsley Turner, Bruning and Volz, who each had two hits, while George scored a team-high two runs for the Lady Bulldogs.

In the circle, Faries took her first loss in an otherwise dominant postseason, allowing seven earned runs in six innings on eight hits and two walks while recording three strikeouts.

With the series set to resume Friday, Elkins said she’s not worried about her team’s response to its first loss since April 14. She said the Lady Bulldogs will just need to make the necessary adjustments and come back out ready to compete with their season on the line.

“I truly believe in my heart that we are the better team, defensively and offensively,” the coach said. “I think we needed this. We haven’t taken a loss in a series yet, and we need to play with that adversity and we need to have that fire to fuel us.

“I think it’s going to catapult us into tomorrow. I have no doubt in my mind that these girls are going to be successful, and I have no doubt in my mind that we’re going to move on to the state semis.”

REGION I-5A DIV. II FINALS

GAME 1

FORT WORTH BREWER 8, WYLIE 4

	123	456	7	—	R	H	E
Wylie	210	100	0	—	4	8	1
Brewer	202	040	x	—	8	8	1

Avie Faries and Ella Bruning. Cozette Tyson and Abrielle Urias. W — Tyson. L — Faries. 2B — Wylie: Ella Bruning, Kaegan McCann; Brewer: Samantha Aguirre. HR — Brewer: Avery Welch 2, Charisma Johnson, Ava Pena.

Records — Wylie 24-14; Fort Worth Brewer 24-8.