Early test against Lorena says plenty about Marble Falls softball

CAPTION: Cheyenne Thompson comes through with a RBI to help give the Lady Mustangs the lead.  Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School softball team lost to Lorena 5-4 in eight innings Feb. 22 in a contest that was added late.

The reason is because weather forced the Austin Hyde Park tournament officials to cancel the event.

“I’m very proud of how the kids competed and their efforts,” head coach Alex Lozoya said. “It was good for our kids, our parents and our program to be in this game. They’re deserving to be here.”

For three innings, the game was scoreless until Lorena plated two runs in the fourth inning thanks to a single and a home run.

As he observed what happened, Lozoya had one thought.

“Here’s our breaking moment,” he said, pointing out the fork in the road.

The Lady Mustangs responded with three runs in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead. Cheyenne Blair drew a key walk, while Brooklyn Damico walked to score a run when the bases were loaded. Jocelyn Suarez hit a ground ball that was misplayed and Kylie Roberts hit a single during the sequence that helped give Marble Falls the lead.

In its half of the inning, Lorena looked to regain the advantage. But pitcher Damico had other ideas, Lozoya said.

“Brooklyn found a way out of it,” he said. “Brooklyn gave up what she considered to be a big inning, and it doesn’t snowball like it did in the past. Two pitches, and we’re out of the inning.”

Then Marble Falls added another run in the seventh inning.

“The feeling in the stands was we couldn’t touch their pitcher as much as we would have liked,” the coach said. “But when we put up our three and our bats got engaged, everything picked up.”

Lorena, however, scored two runs in the seventh inning and the winning run in the eighth.

“When you got a chance, you got to finish,” Lozoya said. “In the seventh, we got a strikeout and a groundball. We had a chance to make a play defensively, and we didn’t. Our kids are deserving to be in this type of game. Our defense needs to stay consistent and on point to give ourselves a chance.”

Freshmen Damico and Callie Phillips split time in the circle with Damico pitching 4 1/3 innings. All five runs were earned and the pitchers had a combined 4 strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Lorena struck out 20 Lady Mustangs and issued 5 walks. Marble Falls had a total of 4 RBI thanks to Suarez, Roberts, Thompson and Damico.

“Early on, each team put up zeroes,” Lozoya said. “We couldn’t score, we couldn’t put a barrel on (their pitcher). They couldn’t barrel up on Brooklyn. Our pitchers and defense were doing a good job of getting flyballs and ground balls.”

While the outcome wasn’t what the Lady Mustangs wanted, Lozoya saw plenty of positives that reinforced what he is seeing. Lorena “is a quality program” that has been consistently in the playoffs for several years, he said.

“I don’t think we would have attempted to schedule a team like this unless we had to,” he said. “It was good for the kids, especially knowing their playoff appearances and making state runs.”

Like Marble Falls, Lorena found itself in need of a game. So Lozoya and his staff decided to take the Lady Mustangs and really get a feel for what they could do and how they’d react to the ebbs and flows of an opponent that has some of the same traits Marble Falls will see in the next few weeks.

“That’s what we’re going to see in district,” Lozoya said. “Lorena is a high-caliber program. So why not? This is the second game our kids have shown resilience. You don’t have to be perfect to be good, but you do have to be good to be great.”

Marble Falls is at Lago Vista Tuesday, Feb. 25, with the junior varsity starting at 5 p.m. and the varsity to follow.

CAPTION: Pitcher Brooklyn Damico and shortstop Jocelyn Suarez know what to do with the ball to give the Lady Mustangs at a chance for outs. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro