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(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Mike Garcia batting in the top of the lineup Friday, April 4. Garcia has been one of Graham’s most consistent hitters over the course of the season. -
(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Bruin Wright replaces Garcia with runners on base Friday, April 4 against the Brownwood Lions. Graham struggled in the early innings trying to stop Brownwood’s offensive attack. -
(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) First baseman Cotter Johnson attempting to make a tag out up the first base line for Graham during their matchup Friday, April 4 against Brownwood. -
(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Ty Thompson up at the plate for the Steers batting order Friday, April 4. Thompson is one of the veteran leaders on the team and one of the team’s graduating seniors.
It was a long day for the Steers as they fell Friday to the Brownwood Lions, 9-4.
After playing relatively strongly at home after the last couple of weeks, the Steers had an uncharacteristic performance in their loss.
Right from the jump, it wasn’t an ideal day for ball in Graham. The clear sunny skies and warm weather the team was accustomed to recently fell away into mid-50-degree weather and mild wind, adding a chill.
After surrendering zero runs in the top of the first inning, things were downhill from there. The team found themselves in a 7-0 hole after a series of well-placed hits by Brownwood and fielding errors by Graham.
The team also used three different pitchers in Mike Garcia, Bruin Wright and Harison Brockway in the top of the second inning.
“In this district we’ve got to show up with all three phases working good,” Head coach Allen McGee said. “There was an inning in there where we just let everything slip.”
The Steers did not go down without a fight, though.
In the bottom of the third, the team made it a contest again after collecting an RBI single from Brockway, another run on a field error in the outfield after Levi Jilek made solid contact, and a two-run double from Tanner Hurford made it 7-4.
“Any time you can put up four in an inning, you’ve done some good things. In fact, we probably could have had a little bit more, “ McGee said.
However, the lead was simply too steep for Graham from the jump as the Lions put two more runs on the board to make it 9-4, which ultimately stuck as the winning score.
Despite having full confidence in his team’s resilience, McGee also expressed a message of urgency to his team. This late in the season McGee said teams are beginning to sharpen up and there is no room for off days as things go forward.
However, McGee still fully believes in his team and their ability to bounce back despite the out-of-character performance.
“They’re a resilient bunch. It starts with throwing strikes and we just really weren’t on point today with that, and then it bled into our defense,” he said.
The team committed three fielding errors during the contest which McGee said are an inevitable part of the game but will have to be cleaned up and minimized going forward.
