Bears split Tournament games
Brownsboro wins first two games before dropping final two

Chad Wilson Photo RIGHT FIELD SINGLE-- Collin Wilson singles to right field during the Bears win over Elkhart during last Friday's Howard Estes Memorial Tournament in Elkhart.

They're young, they're growing and before we know it Brownsboro is going to have a very good baseball team.

With new head coach Joe Fleming at the helm for years to come the Brownsboro High School baseball program is in great shape.

Fleming previously coached at Winnsboro and brings several years of coaching experience to a program that had been shaking over the last few seasons.

Also at the helm with Fleming are assistant coaches Brad Baca and Ricky Daily.

Playing in their first game of the season last week in Elkhart the Bears opened the 2007 baseball season with an impressive win.

Facing Trinity in pool play on Thursday the Bears rolled to a 9-5 win behind the arm of Clayton Boyd and the bat of Ryan Epperson.

Epperson got the Bears on the board early as he nailed a 1-0 pitch for his first homerun of the season with 2 outs in the inning.

In the second inning the Bears recorded four hits and five walks in route to five runs.

Chad Wilson Photo IMPRESSIVE BEGINNING-- Pitching in his first game of the season Brownsboro Junior Keaton Parsell carried a no hitter through five innings of action. Parsell recorded nine strikeouts as the Bears rolled to a 6-2 win over Elkhart.

Trinity managed to get on the board in the second, but the Bears maintained the lead with a score of 6-4. Trinity chipped away at the lead in the third scoring once more as entering the fourth inning the score was 7-5.

Two hits and three walks earned the Bears 2 more runs in the fourth inning to finish the game with a score of 9-5.

Boyd pitched four solid innings striking out four batters and walking six. Coach Fleming was impressed with Boyd's performance and looks forward to Boyd's progress this season on the mound.

After his opening homerun Epperson walked his next at bat before singling in his final at bat in the fourth inning.

In their second game of the pool play portion of the tournament the Bears faced off against the home town Elkhart Elks.

Taking the mound for the visiting Bears was junior Keaton Parsell. After the Bears went hitless in the top of the first Parsell controled the Elks by striking out 2 of the first three batters.

In the second inning the Bears got on the board with 2 outs as Jeremy Monroe walked, stole second and scored on a Brad McDonald hit to left field.

With a 1-0 lead Parsell controled the heart of the Elks order in the bottom of the second recording two more strike outs.

Continuing to add run support the Bears scored two more runs in the top of the third inning. Cameron Warren, a freshman, led off the inning with an infield single, stole second and advanced to third on a hit by Collin Wilson. Wilson then stole second setting the Bears up with 2 runners in scoring position with one out and hot hitting Ryan Epperson at the plate.

Epperson made the most of his plate appearance singling to right field scoring two runs. Parsell followed with a single to left before the Bears left two runners stranded.

Just like the previous two innings Parsell made quick work of the Elks in the third. After two quick outs Parsell allowed the first Elk of the game to reach base on a walk. Catcher Ryan Epperson helped Parsell keep things under control by catching the runner trying to steal to end the inning.

Neither team scored in the fourth inning as Parsell continued his dominance over Elkhart not allowing a hit through the first four innings of play while recording 7 strike outs.

In the top of the fifth inning the Bears' bats lit up as did their ability to get on base. Epperson doubled, Parsell drove in Epperson with a single before Boyd was hit by a pitch. A batter later McDonald singled in both runners to give the Bears a 6- 0 lead. In his first at bat of the season Logan Bryan walked before another Elk pitching change, the second of the inning.

With the long delay and it being his first start of the season Parsell could not keep the no hitter going in the fifth inning as the Elks led off the inning with a hit to center field. Parsell nailed down the inning fanning the leadoff hitter with bases loaded.

Brownsboro recorded one hit in the sixth inning before taking the field for the final half inning. With a new pitcher on the mound the Bears allowed just one run in the final inning for a 6-2 win.

Parsell earned the win with five strong innings, 9 strikeouts, a walk and three hits. Brownsboro totaled 10 hits in the game, Epperson, Parsell, McDonald and Warren each had 2 hits.

In their second game on Friday the Bears fell in 5 innings to Grosbeck by the score of 20-0. The Bears totaled four hits in the game while using four pitchers. Trinity beat Grosbeck 11-1.

On Saturday the Bears played Grapeland and lost in five innings by the score of 9- 8. Colin Wilson led off the game for the Bears with a single and scored the first run of the game off the bat of Keaton Parsell.

With two outs in the second inning Tracy Sims singled and scored off the bat of Wilson. Despite scoring four runs in the second the Bears still trailed 6-5 heading into the third inning.

Brownsboro took the lead in the third as Monroe singled with one out and came into score on a Logan Bryan triple. Bryan's triple also scored Suggs and Wilson.

Leading 8-6 heading into the fourth the Bears allowed just one run to hold a slim lead heading into the final inning.

In the fifth Grapeland scored two runs to edge the Bears 9-8.

Freshman Ryan Smith started the game for the Bears before the game was finished on the mound by Epperson. Smith pitched the first 2 innings striking out 2 batters and walking two. Epperson also struck out 2 batters.

Brownsboro finished the tournament with a 2-2 record playing very well at times, and very young at others.

This team is in a growing process with two seniors, 4 juniors, and at least 2 freshmen. With the amount of underclassmen on the Varsity team the next few seasons look very bright.

The Bears will play in the Grand Saline-Canton tournament this Thursday-Saturday. Brownsboro's first game will be played in Grand Saline about 1:00pm Thursday.

Next Tuesday, March 13 the Bears will host Eustace in Brownsboro at 6:00pm.