Faith Academy baseball wins tourney
CAPTION: The Faith Academy of Marble Falls baseball team won the San Marcos Peter Garza Tournament recently, the first time the Flames have won a tournament in their baseball history. The team includes head coach Rob Ellis (left), Austin Ellis, Braxton Blair, Sawyer Jones, Knox Frazier, Spencer Kenney, Austin Andrews, Nixon Little, Ben Kosoglow, Hudson Russell, Wade Dillard, Cooper Hansard, Joseph Spence and assistant coach coach Gary Dillard. Courtesy photo
The Faith Academy of Marble Falls baseball team is 6-2 after starting the season in mid February.
The Flames crushed New Braunfels Thunder 18-5 March 6 after losing to Temple Central Texas Christian 7-4 March 5 in District 3, Division IV play.
Against CTC, Faith had a 3-1 lead at the end of the second inning when the Lions plated two runs in the third. The Flames answered with a run to take a 4-3 advantage. But CTC plated three runs in the fifth inning and one in the seventh for the victory.
“Things kind of unraveled on us,” head coach Rob Ellis said. “This is not an excuse, but the wind was blowing in about 25 to 30 mph. It was a dust storm, it was howling out there, and our guys tend to drive the ball pretty well and we were hitting bombs that were just hanging up in the air forever and they were chasing them down. They made a lot of good outfield plays. A lot of the balls we were driving just weren’t getting down because of how windy it was. Toward the end of the game, we were trying to hit ground balls, which is something we don’t preach. We were hitting the ball significantly better than them.”
Faith had eight hits to CTC’s five.
“We were flying out,” Ellis said. “And on the flip side, we were walking guys at the wrong time. There were pass balls and that kind of thing that were moving guys around. It was just a little sloppy from the pitching standpoint. (CTC) had a lot of bunts. I want to give them credit. They played a lot of high level dink and dunk short ball. They had a couple of bunts that we didn’t make the play on.”
Each team’s starting pitcher missed time on the practice field because of illness and both felt well enough to play, he said.
“I’m not making excuses,” the coach said. “We just weren’t as sharp. We weren’t pitching like we had, and I just had guys who weren’t feeling well. Overall, we played well, and it was a close game. The game was tight. It just kind of fell apart at the end. And like I said, I’m not going to provide an excuse.”
Faith also recently won the San Marcos Peter Garza tournament thanks to going 3-0. The wins were against Round Rock Christian in the championship 7-4, Austin Value South 10-0 and New Braunfels Thunder 5-1.
“That tournament was great,” Ellis said. “This is the first tournament we’ve won.”
Junior Wade Dillard and Michael Wetzel finished their commitment to the basketball program and joined the baseball team in time for the tournament.
Against Round Rock Christian, Faith rolled to a 5-0 lead by the end of the second inning, though the Crusaders scored a run in the bottom of the fourth to trim the deficit 5-1. Both teams scored two runs in the fifth inning and Round Rock Christian added a run in the seventh inning.
“There were some pretty high tensions well on their side,” Ellis said. “That was a great experience for the players to finally see all their hard work is starting to pay off.”
While no one likes losing, Ellis pointed out the 2-0 setback to Manor New Tech Feb. 16 revealed a lot of positives.
“They got dudes,” he said. “They have guys who look like men out there — thick, big boys — and we played them really, really well.
The Flames will play at CTC at 4 p.m. Friday, March 13.
“We have the whole week coming up to practice, specifically for them and how they play,” Ellis said. “They bunt a lot, they manufacture stuff, they’re really good at manufacturing runs. We can adapt our defense to that.”
