The Marble Falls High School baseball team lost to Salado 9-2 April 4 in District 24-4A play.
“Salado is pretty good in all phases,” Mustangs head coach Tyler Porter said. “They started a lot of seniors.”
Down 7-0, the Mustangs (10-11, 4-2) scored a run in the sixth inning and another in the seventh. Sophomore John Alan Whittle went 2 for 4 at the plate and recorded a RBI. Freshman Braxton Dicken had the other RBI and a hit.
In all Marble Falls had six hits. Other Mustangs who recorded a hit included juniors Grant Carter, Canon Cochran and Atreyu Machacek.
The Eagles (14-5-1, 8-0) led from the start thanks to a RBI double by B.J. Amann in the first inning. Ethan Robledo added a RBI in the second inning for a 2-0 lead.
Brody Cole singled for a run and Jace Light lined out, which brought home two more runs in the third inning for the 5-0 advantage.
In all Salado recorded 11 hits.
Marble Falls started freshman Crawford Mattox at pitcher, who allowed five runs from six hits and five walks while striking out three in 2 2/3 innings. Senior Brenton Liscum took over, allowing four runs from five hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings.
Porter said the Marble Falls defense “is still playing very well.”
This series pointed out an important characteristic – depth. Porter noted the Mustangs’ regular Friday game pitcher didn’t take the mound because of injury.
“We’re good, but we’re thin,” he said. “We got (a starter back) but had to play him (at a different position) because (he’s still not) fully healed. And that’s not an excuse. I’m not saying if we’re full strength, we win. But it’s definitely a different game.
But that’s the way baseball goes. They probably have kids injured, too. (It’s) not like we just played horrible; just didn’t play well enough to get it done with what we had. They might be the best team in the district, but the depth is where they really have us.”
The Mustangs travel to Lampasas (13-4-2, 6-1) Tuesday, April 8, and welcome the Badgers Friday, April 11. Both games start at 7 p.m. Lampasas is second in the district, while Marble Falls is third and Burnet (3-5) is fourth.
“Things are still good with us, and nobody is losing faith after two games,” the coach said. “It’s not like we think we’re a bad team all of a sudden. (We’re) playing in meaningful games. There’s not as much liveand- die with every pitch, there’s not as much of that anymore. It’s more ‘OK, I made a mistake, I made an error, I struck out. Now I’m going to take a deep breath and live with it and get back to what I need to do.’ Just the mental focus gets a little bit better every time they play.”
Jennifer Fierro publishes reports about area youth athletic events on her website TexasChalkTalk.com. To send her a note, email fierrojennifer@ yahoo. com
