Marble Falls softball defeats Lampasas
CAPTION: Coaches say that Cheyenne Blair embodies what sport teaches: commitment, working hard, doing what she is asked, and not caring about credit. Those traits are why her coaches and teammates are so happy that when the Lady Mustangs needed a run, Blair delivered. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School softball team stunned Lampasas 8-5 March 11 in a game that took eight innings in District 24-4A play.
Down 5-4 in the seventh inning, Cheyenne Blair stepped to the plate. She had already struck out twice in four plate appearances.
On a 1-0 count with two outs, Blair saw the pitch that changed the outcome of the contest, sending it over the center field wall for a solo home run to tie the game at 5-5.
“Look up the definition of teammate, you’ll see a picture of Cheyenne Blair. Look up the definition of coachable, you’ll see a picture of Cheyenne,” head coach Alex Lozoya said. “It was a very big moment for her. If we ask her to do something, she doesn’t hesitate. All we told her was to try her best to make contact with the ball. She drove it to center field. It was hit well. We weren’t sure if it would clear the fence. That was a big moment for her that carried us into the bottom of the inning.”
Then the Lady Mustangs (2-1) kept the momentum by not allowing the Lady Badgers to score in the seventh to send the game into one extra inning, which is all they needed thanks to Cheyenne Thompson and Sophia Biagini.
Though Thompson had struck out three times, she had a hit between second and third base that scored two runs for a 7-5 lead. Biagini “hit one into the middle of next week,” Lozoya said for the 8-5 advantage.
Coming into the contest, Lozoya said his players “had to get a little bit of a reset.” They lost to Georgetown Gateway March 7 then some of the Lady Mustangs didn’t have a full practice March 10 because of commitments to other activities.
“It wasn’t our usual routine,” he said. “When we got on the (Lampasas) field, this doesn’t feel right, this isn’t comfortable, this isn’t good. So we had a reset. I talked about the opportunity in front of them. You have a chance to prove a point to the district that (Marble Falls) is no gimme. People think we’ll get a chance to pick it up against Marble Falls. You have a chance to prove you’re going to take them to a full seven innings.”
Lampasas, which has yet to win a district game, immediately scored 2 runs in the first inning. Marble Falls responded with 3 in the third only to have the Lady Badgers match the output in their half of the inning for a 5-3 advantage.
“They were putting the ball in play,” the coach said.
The Lady Mustangs trimmed the deficit to 5-4 in the fourth inning before Blair stepped to the plate in the seventh inning.
Blair finished the contest with 3 RBI, while Biagini and Thompson had 2 each and Callie Phillips had 1.
Lampasas pitcher Brooklyn Farmer was in the circle for all eight innings where she allowed 8 runs on 6 hits and had 12 strikeouts and issued 11 walks. She faced a total of 40 batters.
“We caught breaks,” Lozoya said. “We were very fortunate that we hit balls.”
Defensively, the Lady Mustangs made plays behind freshman pitcher Phillips (2-0), who allowed 3 earned runs and struck out three in six innings.
Shortstop Kylie Roberts and third baseman Thompson “did a heck of a job,” Lozoya said.
“Callie did a great job of making plays,” he said. “We have to take pride on having a defense that will back up our pitchers.”
Among the dozens of text messages Lozoya received following the game, one came from Georgetown Gateway head coach Paul McCoy.
Last week when the Lady Gators were winning against the Lady Mustangs, Lozoya jokingly challenged McCoy to remove reigning district Pitcher of the Year Chloe Ellis out of the circle to “make a game out of it.”
McCoy refused and told Lozoya he’d tell him why after the contest.
When the coaches gathered for the postgame handshake, McCoy kept his word.
“You’ve made it hard enough as it is,” Lozoya recalled hearing. “Your girls are doing a good job. We caught some breaks on y’all tonight. Luckily Chloe was on. But you’re not chasing pitches.”
In the text McCoy congratulated Lozoya and ended it with “I told you.”
“I’m glad for the kids,” Lozoya said. “Hopefully they feel we should be playing seven innings every game. It never felt like the girls were out of it.”
A schedule change means Marble Falls is at Salado Friday, March 14, for a varsity only game at 4:30 p.m. Salado is preparing for construction and requested the site change.
The Lady Mustangs also have schedule changes during Spring Break. They will play the Lady Dawgs at Burnet’s Bulldog Diamonds Tuesday, March 18, with the junior varsity at 1 p.m. and the varsity at 3 p.m. and will welcome Jarrell Wednesday, March 19, in a varsity only game at 2 p.m.
