Marble Falls baseball loses to Jarrell
CAPTION: Junior third baseman Mark Villalobos catches the ball to ensure the Jarrell runner stops. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School baseball team lost to Jarrell 12-5 April 23 in a must-win game for the Cougars for the District 24-4A standings.
The victory means Jarrell (6-8) is in fourth place, while Lampasas (5-9) is in fifth with a game remaining in the regular season.
The first inning foreshadowed how the contest would play out.
The Cougars loaded the bases and scored two runs before the Mustangs recorded the first out. Meanwhile Marble Falls scored a run in its half of the inning after the first and second batters at the top of the order struck out and grounded out to first. The Mustangs’ lone run came after three consecutive walks to load the bases. Freshman Carter Grant was hit by pitch to score the run.
Jarrell responded by scoring five runs in the next four innings for an 8-1 lead.
Marble Falls got its first hit of the night in the fifth inning when senior Evan Nickowski hit a single to the left-center field gap. Freshman John Alan Whittle scored on a pass ball to make the score 8-2.
But the Cougars got the runs back in the sixth when they sent 10 players to bat and scored four runs to put the game out of reach.
Carter and senior Sergio Hernandez scored after a RBI double by Nickowski. Sophomore Canon Cochran scored in the seventh inning.
Jarrell used two pitchers. Carter Kammlah, who is considered the team’s top pitcher, allowed 2 earned runs off 2 hits with at least 5 strikeouts. Blake Hobbs took over in the seventh inning.
“(Kammlah) put guys on base he didn’t want to,” Mustangs head coach Tyler Porter said. “We just didn’t capitalize. Sometimes you don’t get the breaks.”
Marble Falls used four different pitchers, including Nickowski.
“Evan made some good pitches,” the coach said, adding some bat stabs produced positive results for the Cougars.
He pointed out a couple of shots that looked like they were inches from being caught but were too far to one side that allowed Jarrell to run the bases and score.
“They hurt,” Porter said. “They made you play for it.”
The Mustangs honored seniors Isaias Roman, Hernandez and Nickowski in their final home game. The three were part of last year’s district championship team, the program’s first in two decades.
“They’re a good bridge between last year’s group to this year’s group,” Porter said. “They showed everybody how to do things. We’re so young. They look to those seniors.”
The Mustangs will end the season at Jarrell Friday, April 26, with the junior varsity playing at 4:30 p.m. and the varsity to follow.
Watch videos on Highland Lakes sports by going to Fierro’s YouTube channel and searching for The Broad Podcaster. Please like, subscribe and share.
