Marble Falls baseball wins Stephenville series
CAPTION: Marble Falls junior Grant Carter delivers at the plate in helping the Mustangs beat Stephenville twice to begin the 2026 season. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School baseball team defeated Stephenville 2-1 in a three-game series Feb. 20-21 to begin the season.
The Mustangs took game one 11-2, lost game two 7-0 and won the third contest 12-7.
Head coach Tyler Porter agreed that “dominant” was the way to describe the Mustangs’ performances, adding the third game “is us playing at our best.”
“I think we pitched really well,” he said. “Our top arms are in good spots for what they should be, and I think we’ll keep getting better. The goal is to have them good in April and May. I think all signs point toward that being on the right track. The offense is probably the biggest positive. I was confident that we would be able to throw strikes and play a defense. The bats were the question. We have these hard teams. Last year we had our top 3 or 4 that we knew what they’re going to do but then try and find some other pieces. And some of those guys really stepped up. We probably had five hits on the weekend and some really, some really big ones.
Sophomore Crawford Mattox (1-0) was on the hill and helped Marble Falls build a commanding 10-1 lead. He allowed one walk, two hits, struck out three and one unearned run in three innings.
“We should have run-ruled them,” Porter said. “And then we put some young kids in to get experience and everything kind of changed a little bit. So the 12-7 isn’t really indicative of that.”
Junior John Alan Whittle hit a triple down the right-field line and junior Grant Carter had a RBI in the second inning.
The two added to the advantage when Whittle was hit by a pitch that drove in a run, Carter hit a 2 RBI single and a run scored on an error.
In all the Mustangs had nine hits led by two hits apiece from seniors Atreyu Machacek and Canon Cochran. Machacek was 2 for 3 at the plate with 3 RBI. Cochran “hit a smoker” line drive that “ended up being a double over the left fielder’s head” for a 4-1 lead.
“That kind of opened it up,” the coach said. “That was big.”
Pitcher Ben Sowers threw two innings of shutout baseball – no hits, two strikeouts and two walks.
“I can’t say enough good things about Ben Sowers either,” the coach said. “Everything he does, he does well. He gets hits, plays good defense and can then slide in at catcher. We got in trouble and made some substitutions. He closed out the last two innings on the mound as a 15-year-old sophomore. He got the game ball.”
The Mustangs began the series with commanding 11-2 victory thanks to recording 13 hits led by Whittle’s strong pitching and plate production.
He singled in the first, fourth, fifth and seventh innings, going 4 for 5 on the day, and junior Owen Nash led the team with 3 RBI.
On the bump, Whittle (1-0) allowed four hits, a run, a walk and struck out three in four innings.
The junior, who Porter called “a dude” a year ago, did little to change his coach’s assessment in the season opener.
“He looked good,” he said. “If you remember him throwing against Burnet the first time at home last year, and he came out and kind of had his first real start in high school (9-4 win). He looked like that. He was great and did a heck of job at the plate, too.”
Nash got the scoring going on a RBI in the first inning then the Mustangs added to the lead in fourth. Nash, Whittle and Machacek each hit RBI singles, sophomore Anderson Liscum scored a run on a groundout, and another run was scored on an error.
Machacek and Sowers each had multiple hits, Mattox drew three walks, and Whittle, Carter, Mattox and Cochran each stole bases. In all the Mustangs recorded 14 stolen bases.
“You want to win the series, and we did so,” Porter said. “Overall, a whole lot of positives.”
The Mustangs welcome Cameron Yoe at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, in the team’s home opener.
CAPTION: Sophomore Crawford Mattox (left) chats with head coach Tyler Porter before he heads to the plate. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
