Marble Falls softball loses to Salado
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior Cheyenne Thompson scores a run in the second inning for her team against Salado. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School softball team lost to Salado 15-2 April 8 in District 24-4A play.
Marble Falls scored its two runs in the second inning thanks to RBI from Sophia Biagini and Riley Frisch after Cheyenne Thompson got on base with a single. They and Jocelyn Suarez each had a hit.
“It’s always good when you have kids who want to be coached,” head coach Alex Lozoya said. “Before they even went on deck they were asking, ‘Hey, here’s my plan. What do you think? Let’s try this. OK.’ When they came in, it was ‘hey, that was money, that worked.’ And so they did a good job of going in there. The biggest thing was the discipline to lay off balls that weren’t giving them a chance to get on. And they were competing in attacking strikes.”
But the Lady Eagles (21-4, 10-0) scored 15 unanswered runs, plating six in the third inning, 1 in the fourth, two in the fifth, two in the sixth, and four in the seventh. In all, they had 15 hits and 10 earned runs.
Lozoya credited Salado for changing its approach to Marble Falls pitches.
“You can’t give a team like Salado extra chances,” he said. “I think they made some adjustments. You can’t give a team like that extra chances. A team like that is not going to give you any breaks.”
Offensively, the Lady Eagles put the ball in play and used their speed to confuse infielders on where to go with the ball. Well hit singles may not have left the infield, but a fast Lady Eagle forced the Lady Mustang to question where to throw the ball because the base runner was steps, not feet, away from the bags.
Marble Falls freshman pitcher Brooklyn Damico pitched six innings and freshman Callie Phillips took over in the seventh. Lozoya said he stuck with Damico because it was an opportunity for the starter to get more work against an opponent with few weaknesses. He hoped she would view it as a chance to compete against good hitters, learn and apply that experience to help her continue to develop into the hurler she wants to be.
“We wanted Brooklyn to go out and get quality innings and work,” he said. “It was a chance for all of us to get innings against tough pitchers and get that experience. I think she understands she needs to hit spots to be successful.”
Salado used three different pitchers. In back-to-back innings, the Lady Mustangs left the bases loaded.
Elsewhere in the district, Taylor (2-7) defeated Lampasas (3-7) 9-8 in a contest the Lady Ducks raced to an early 4-0 lead midway through the third inning. The Lady Badgers, however, scored two in the third inning, two in the fifth and one in the sixth to take a 5-4 advantage into the seventh inning. From there Taylor scored five runs and allowed three to escape with the victory.
Georgetown Gateway (8-1) crushed Jarrell (3-6) 15-0 and Burnet (5-4) had the bye.
Marble Falls welcomes Burnet in the final home game of the regular season Friday, April 11, before traveling to play at Jarrell Tuesday, April 15. Both contests begin at 7 p.m.
The program will honor its six seniors and their families before the first pitch against the Lady Dawgs.
“It’ll be an emotional day and then you add in the fact that it’s Burnet,” Lozoya said. “All we can do is see what we can do Friday.”
CAPTION: Marble Falls second baseman Kylie Roberts tags Salado senior Ryley Litchfield out then throws to first to end the first inning with a double play. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
