Marble Falls softball gains much more than wins at tournament

CAPTION: Cheyenne Blair closes her eyes to protect them as she covers second base as Aydan Ortis looks on. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School softball team posted a 2-3-1 record at the Ingram Tom Moore tournament Feb. 15-17.

The Lady Mustangs (2-4-1) beat Mason 7-2 and lost to Leakey 5-3 Feb. 17, crushed Center Point 13-2 and lost to San Antonio West Campus 6-4 Feb. 16, and tied Ingram 6-6 and lost to Medina 8-6 Feb. 15.

“It’s the first time going live,” head coach Alex Lozoya said.

In all Marble Falls scored 38 runs and gave up 30 runs.

He credits assistant coach Hailey Wooten for the run production.

“She does a tremendous job,” he said. “She’s another chef in the kitchen. I told her ‘You have the offense, I’m going to let you cook.'”

Lozoya noted one big challenge was the fact that each contest was limited to 80 minutes, no matter the score and which team was batting.

“In a couple of those games, we had momentum and a chance to cash in,” he said. “Then the timer would go off. Some games we got a little over five innings and some games we got three. In the games we lost we blew leads. Once the other team scores, you don’t get the bats back. You have to get off the field.”

One benefit of playing in this tournament is that Marble Falls had a complete roster. Lozoya noted that during the scrimmages, some players had commitments to other school-related activities. One was junior Kylie Roberts, who was finishing her commitment to the girls basketball team. Its season ended Feb. 12 in a bi-district championship loss to Waco Connally.

He said he hopes the players gained some confidence from this event.

“It’s not an excuse, but we haven’t been complete because we’ve had kids missing when we got together,” he said. “We look up, we’re throwing strikes and giving our team a chance. We looked good making a case for themselves. They shined and gave us a reason to find them more reps.”

Lozoya said the challenge now is to discover ways to win close games, especially in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

“You should be able to play and give yourselves a chance,” he said. “We were not executing in the times we should. The kids are in scoring position. Hopefully they find a way to break through. We can compete in some games. We have one inning with one error and two outs with bases loaded. Errors compound that.”

After this tournament, he pointed out, his players realized how close they are to creating the season they want. He noted that during lunch Feb. 17, they told him that had those games been a complete seven innings, they believe they would have won.

“We might have pulled them off,” he recalled hearing. “The kids are powering the bats and the pitchers are throwing strikes. Everything we’re doing is to get ready for district.”

Marble Falls travels to play at Canyon Lake at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20.

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