Marble Falls softball loses to Jarrell

CAPTION: With one swing, freshman Callie Phillips gave the Lady Mustangs chance to at a comeback against Jarrell. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School softball team lost to Jarrell 5-4 April 15 to end the 2025 season.

Trailing 4-1 the Lady Mustangs (10-16, 2-10) were down to their final three outs.

The bottom of the sixth inning was especially brutal. The game was tied at 1-1 when Jarrell plated three. A Marble Falls outfielder misjudged the ball’s landing spot. Instead of it falling into her glove, it hit the top. As runners were rounding the bases, senior second baseman Kylie Roberts caught the relay throw and fired to sophomore catcher Jocelyn Suarez who was guarding home plate. Though it wasn’t in time to get the runner out, the batter decided to go to third where she was out.

“Jocelyn threw a dart to third base,” head coach Alex Lozoya said.

Before his players grabbed their helmets to bat, he gathered with them and looked at them.

“They had that punch-in-the-gut, ‘Oh no, it’s over’ looks,” he said.

Then he spoke.

“They’re going to try to finish you off and go celebrate,” he recalled saying. “You can get back in it. We just need to reset and go back to competing one batter at a time.”

Roberts led off with a double and Suarez hit a single.

Then freshman Callie Phillips delivered with a three-run homer to tie the game with no outs.

“Callie had been asking about an adjustment,” Lozoya said. “She unloaded on a ball that hit off the scoreboard.”

Senior Sophia Biagini drew a walk, but the next three batters all struck out.

With renewed determination, the Lady Mustangs went to defense and got two outs.

“A lazy line drive” to the infielder was picked up and thrown to first base for the out. Instead, the ball didn’t find the mark and the runner reached third base on the error. She later scored when freshman pitcher Brooklynn Damico and Suarez “weren’t on the same page” and the ball got away.

“Brooklynn allowed one earned run out of the five,” Lozoya said. “I purposely walked some batters. I was looking to load the bases, and the kids got out of it. The kids did a great job of keeping it 1-1. That last inning doesn’t reflect Brooklynn’s performance.”

Damico allowed 6 hits and 7 walks while striking out two.

Marble Falls took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Lady Cougars (7-18-2, 4-7) tied the contest in the fourth inning. They had runners on first and third with two outs when Lozoya called a timeout to make sure his players knew what to do.

Just as he predicted, the batter faked bunting to entice Marble Falls to show its defense. Then the runner on first faked like she was running to second to fool the catcher into throwing the ball. When that happened, the runner at third scored.

“A defensive miscue,” Lozoya said. “You can practice this, you can practice that. You practice routines. Everybody will remember the ending. But no one will remember the number of times the players were in the right defensive spots to ensure batters didn’t get multiple runs or bases. If they weren’t there, you don’t know what would have happened.”

The Lady Cougars didn’t record a RBI.

Offensively Marble Falls scored four earned runs off 10 hits and two walks and struck out four times.

Suarez, Phillips and junior Cheyenne Thompson each had two hits, while Roberts, senior Khloe Hollingsworth and senior Kiersten Plumlee each had one. Rylie Frisch had some great shots, Lozoya said, but Jarrell third baseman Caryn Reser had some great defensive plays to take them away.

“We had our chances,” he said. “The Jarrell third baseman had a great game. It was hard to get anything past her. That’s just the way the game goes. We gave ourselves a chance. They made plays.”

The ending of the season was tough, he said.

“The seniors took it hard,” the coach said. “The freshmen were crying cause they made a good connection with the senior class.”

He said he thanked Biagini, Roberts and Cheyenne Blair for playing all four years, Plumlee and Natalie Bertino for “giving me a chance to recruit them in the hallways,” and Emma Cayce for coming out.

“The group made some strides and showed potential,” Lozoya said. “This group competed well.”

CAPTION: Freshman pitcher Brooklynn Damico threw a solid game against Jarrell. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro