Lions fall in district championship game

Mansfield’s baseball team knew they would need to play a near perfect game if they were going to defeat a 23-win Crocker team in last week’s Class 2, District 9 Tournament semifinals to earn a trip to the championship game. They did just that as the defense committed no errors and starting pitcher Brayden Stuart tossed a complete-game gem for a 7-1 victory.
Unfortunately, with weather forcing the Lions to play a doubleheader in districts at the Ballparks National in Macks Creek, Mansfield then fell to Richland in the championship game, 5-0. The Bears had upset No. 1 seed Hartville, 6-5, in their district semifinals.
Surprisingly enough, Richland ended the regular season as winners of just three of their previous 11 games before going 3-0 in districts.
In the win over Crocker, the Lions broke a 1-1 tie with a six-run top of the sixth inning to pull away for the win.
In that big inning, the offense drew four walks and a hit-by-pitch as they pulled away from a Crocker team that was in their district finals a season ago.
Parker Moody had two RBIs; Easton Thompson had one RBI and scored twice; while Fisher Croney, John Roberts and Jaxon Clark had one RBI and one run scored.
Stuart tossed seven innings on the mound and gave up one earned run on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks.
In the championship game, the Lions’ offense had just six hits and the defense committed two errors as Mansfield’s season came to an end in a 5-0 loss.
Both Croney and Stuart had two hits in the loss.
On the mound, Aiden Garrison tossed four innings and gave up no earned runs on six hits . Clark tossed three innings and gave up one earned run on one hit with three strikeouts and four walks. Mansfield’s season ended with a 13-11 overall record.