Marble Falls baseball looks to build on last season’s success

The Marble Falls High School baseball team begins the 2024 season at the Fredericksburg Eberle-Boeck Memorial Baseball Tournament Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 22-24.

They begin against Llano at 9 a.m., then face Austin McCallum at 2 p.m. Thursday, resume against Austin Regents Friday and finish against Big Spring Saturday. Both games start at 9 a.m.

The Mustangs are returning four starters and three more lettermen from a year ago when they captured the District 24-4A title.

The most experienced Mustangs are Evan Nickowski and Isaias Roman, two seniors who play a lot of baseball.

During a recent scrimmage against Wimberley, Nickowski was 5 for 5 at the plate that included 2 triples.

Nickowski was a pitcher in the program up until last year.

“We didn’t need him as much with the guys we had,” said head coach Tyler Porter, who is entering his fifth year at the helm.

Porter said coaches are still evaluating the rest of the pitching staff and other positions.

“You don’t really know until you know,” he said. “Once we get into district play, we’ll have it all figured out.”

Marble Falls doesn’t have a question on who’ll start at catcher. Roman, who was named first team all-district last year, spent the majority of the season behind the plate. Other returning starters are sophomore Canon Cochran, who was the district’s co-Newcomer of the Year in 2023, and senior Davis Dreisbach, who was a first team all-district selection. The returning lettermen include Sergio Hernandez, Atreya Machacek and Colton Minor.

“I have a lot of faith in them,” Porter said. “I told Evan and Isaias that you don’t want to have a great junior year and not a great senior year. You want to follow success with success. Building a program and leaving a legacy is a very different level of commitment.”

The rest of the roster doesn’t lack talent, he added, but some time may be needed for them to adjust to the speed and strength of the varsity level. The underclassmen are taking the spots of six players who graduated a year ago with five of them playing for four years. Porter noted the big difference between February 2023 and February 2024 is that a year ago, the Mustangs knew the procedures, the drills and the plays, so practices weren’t slowed by teaching. Right now, coaches are teaching a lot of the basics that veterans simply know.

“It was guys who’d been in the program playing every day on varsity,” Porter said. “They’re freshmen we’ve had playing in scrimmages. We’ve had to show them more. Last year was an easier coaching job. Last year’s group just knew and could hit the ground running.”

As for the district race, Porter said Burnet and Lago Vista return plenty. And Lampasas and Georgetown Gateway also have talented players.

“Talent wise, they’re pretty good,” he said. “(My) kids have to buy-in and understand. Teams are going to want to beat us cause we were so good last year. It’s never been a big deal to beat Marble Falls. That’s not true now. That’s fun to me. I like that.”

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