Marble Falls softball loses to Gateway

CAPTION: Head coach Alex Lozoya (left) talks to the Lady Mustangs infield Callie Phillips (10), Ady Floyd, Matti King, Jocelyn Suarez and Cheyenne Thompson. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School softball team lost to Georgetown Gateway 5-2 in a District 24-4A contest that was moved to March 5 to avoid bad weather.

“I’m proud of the kids and their fight,” Marble Falls head coach Alex Lozoya said. “Because the bats got better as the game went on to the point where Gateway said, ‘Hey, I got to make a change at pitcher.’ I’m proud of the kids, of the way they fought back.”

The Lady Gators struck first by scoring a run in the second inning. But Marble Falls freshman Adyson Floyd hit a single down the first-base line for a RBI to tie the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning. She finished with 2 RBI.

But Gateway got the separation in the sixth inning by plating three runs: a batter singled down the first-base line, a dropped third strike allowed the batter to reach and send a runner home, and a walk resulted in another run.

Marble Falls had an opportunity to score more thanks to loading the bases. But the next two batters struck out and the third one hit “a weak ground ball” for the final out to end the threat.

Another batter hit a ball to deep right field and the defender got to it and threw home to preserve the run.

“Hey, it happens,” Lozoya said. “Then Addyson Floyd hits a ball that gets through the infield. We got two in. Hard ground ball up the middle, girl made a play. Next ball was a pop-up, girl made a play.”

Marble Falls pitcher Brooklynn Damico was credited with the loss by allowing three earned runs off 10 hits and a walk in 5 2/3 innings of play.

“We have to help ourselves,” Lozoya said. “Brooklynn did a great job of getting to 0-2 (in the pitch count). You can’t go anywhere near the zone at 0-2. They put a good barrel on the ball that should not have been a good barrel. As a pitching staff, I have to do a better job of reading, reminding them and working on, ‘Hey, when you do a good job of getting ahead, you don’t have to give them the third and fourth ones anywhere near the zone. See if we can stretch it up and get themselves out. And then if they don’t, then we come back and play aggressive and see what we can do and find a hole in the swing to get them out.’ We need to take advantage of ourselves and just execute our approach better.”

The Lady Mustangs (4-14, 0-2) didn’t commit an error. And there were a couple of opportunities to catch pop-ups in foul territory where a strong wind moved the ball around before it dropped. While Marble Falls made solid efforts to catch the ball, the wind made the landing unpredictable.

That allowed the batter to stay in the box, eventually leading to a run scoring.

Then another batter hit a pop-up that was between second and third base where two Lady Mustangs wanted to make the catch, but the ball fell to the ground, allowing the Lady Gator to reach base. So the next batter recorded a hit.

“It’s a little bit of just making your own breaks,” Lozoya said. “This is how I feel. In baseball and in softball, there are opportunities to get cheap outs. If you get those cheap outs — a pop-up, fly ball that’s fielded, one of those where the offense can’t get anything productive out of it — if it drops, the girl’s not going to get to first base — so it’s all on the defense. It’s a chance to steal one.”

Marble Falls welcomes Lampasas, which beat Jarrell 12-10 March 5 after losing to Salado 9-1 March 3, in the district home opener.