Tyler Legacy’s Nolan Hable gets a piece of the ball during Tuesday’s game against Longview. (Les Hassell/Longview News-Journal Photo)

LONGVIEW — Longview hosted East Texas rival Tyler Legacy during Tuesday night’s District 10-6A baseball game, and overcame both a first inning deficit and a game-long pitchers’ duel in a 7-3 win.

The Lobos leaned on starting pitcher Cole Ramey’s nine strikeouts over five-plus innings of work, and improved their 2025 season record to 7-13 and district record to 2-3 before they travel to Tyler Legacy for Friday’s 7 p.m. rematch.

The Red Raiders received 10 punchouts from starter Cale Zips over 4.1 frames, but they still dropped their year mark to 11-11 and league mark to 3-4.

“This one was huge,” said Longview baseball coach Jim Goldman. “We needed to win. Now, we gotta come back and try to win one on Friday night.”

Tyler Legacy earned an early leg up on Longview in the top of the first inning because Garner McKinney reached on a Lobo error and Payne Hotman earned a single with no outs before Zips loaded the bases with a one-out walk.

Nolan Hable then followed with an RBI single that drove in McKinney and Hotman for a 2-0 lead in the opening inning.

Longview’s lineup then made the most of opportunities with two outs in the bottom of the first to bounce back for their own lead. Drew Flores produced a single, Ramey and Bryson Denning reached base on their respective hit-by-pitch and walk to load the bases, and Javarey Valentine stepped up with a game-changing RBI triple that scored Flores’ courtesy runner Dameion Kennedy and Ramey’s courtesy runner Houston Rowe, and Denning for a 3-2 Longview lead.

Tyler Legacy’s Zips then hit Longview batter Payton Woods with a pitch, and was later called for a balk that allowed Valentine to travel home the final 90 feet for a 4-2 advantage in the frame.

Ramey faced another Tyler Legacy bases loaded situation in the top of the second, but he learned from the previous inning, and got out of this situation without allowing a run by forcing Hable’s inning-ending groundout.

The Longview lineup broke through again in the bottom of the third because Ramey drew a leadoff walk and courtesy runner Rowe later came home to score on a Zips’ wild pitch to make it a 5-2 home team lead.

Zips bounced back when he struck out the Longview side in the bottom of the fourth. He earned three straight punchouts against Lobo batters Lawson Tubb, Kieffer Doxey and Roman Guidry.

Ramey followed with three straight strikeouts when he faced Tyler Legacy batters Hable, Dallas Wallzer and Noah Felton in the top of the fifth.

Denning then stepped up to the plate for Longview in the bottom of the fifth, and smacked a two-run homer over the centerfield fence to also score Kennedy and grow the game gap to 7-2.

Tyler Legacy responded late when McKinney’s sacrifice fly drove in Cole Kimmel and cut Longview’s lead to 7-3 in the top of the sixth, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a loss.

The two teams will meet again on Friday in Tyler. The game is set for 7 p.m. at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Mike Carter Field.