Marble Falls baseball beats Gateway
CAPTION: Senior Canon Cochran delivers on this 2 RBI double to give the Mustangs the lead in the first inning against Georgetown Gateway. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School baseball team defeated Georgetown Gateway 8-5 March 17 to go to 2-1 in District 24-4A play.
The Mustangs (12-3, 2-1) scored all the runs they needed in the first inning.
After the Gators (0-1) scored on a groundout, Marble Falls responded with eight runs, six before Gateway could record an out.
It began with back-to-back walks to juniors John Alan Whittle and Grant Carter. Then senior Canon Cochran hit a RBI double on a six-pitch at-bat.
By the time the inning ended, the Mustangs recorded four hits and forced Gateway to change pitchers twice. At least 10 Mustangs batted in the inning to build the 8-1 lead.
“We definitely did a great job,” Porter said. “The phrase we use, and it’s not unique, is to keep the line moving. Your job’s … to come up and just find a way on base. The next guy passes the bat to the next guy. They did a great job of that. Nobody didn’t think too much – a lot of singles, a lot of walks, a lot of good at-bats. And things like that kind of balloon, which was good.”
The Gators, however, began to meticulously chip away at the lead by scoring at least one run an inning for the rest of the contest. Porter said those runs were scored “on little stuff, maybe a walk, maybe an error.”
“That wasn’t our cleanest baseball,” he said.
Still, when the Mustangs could have allowed Gateway to overtake the advantage, they didn’t.
“That’s good,” the coach said. “One of our big concepts is to extend the lead. It’s frustrating when you don’t do that. Sometimes it’s hard. You score eight in the first. We did a good job, but they didn’t really stop us either. It’s a spring break game on a Tuesday. It’s sunny, you’re up 8-to-nothing and you kind of let your guard down a bit. And that’s what we need to work on.”
Cochran collected 3 RBI and went 1 for 4 at the plate. Landon White, who bats eighth in the order, was 3 for 3 at the plate. Sophomore Crawford Mattox recorded 2 hits in 3 at-bats. Carter collected two walks to lead his team, which had a total of six walks.
The game ended on a Marble Falls 6-4-3 double play with senior pitcher Atreyu Machacek on the mound, who allowed two runs in three innings.
Whittle (5-0, 2-0 in district) was credited with the win. He allowed two earned runs off four hits and two walks with four strikeouts in four innings.
Gateway starting pitcher Izaac Rodriguez recorded one out while allowing seven earned runs on four hits and five walks with one strikeout. Relief pitcher Julian Lopez, who also had the RBI in the first inning, allowed no runs off five hits and a walk and struck out two in 5 2/3 innings.
“I don’t think we played our best baseball and there’s some frustrating stuff,” Porter said. “We didn’t perform offensively the back half of the game like I thought we could have. But we had some good stuff that happened, too. Can you take the win and you go home?”
Marble Falls suffered its first district loss to Burnet March 13 in eight innings.
In the top of the eighth inning with two outs and the score tied 1-1, the Bulldogs loaded the bases then Cade Park hit a bases clearing double for the win.
Then Burnet freshman pitcher Hudson Crawford closed out the game in his only inning. He replaced senior pitcher Cohen Jorpeland, who was out of pitches.
“We put them in position to capitalize on some mistakes,” Porter said. “And they did.”
The Gateway series concludes Thursday, March 19, at 1:30 p.m. in Georgetown.
“You need to make sure you’re winning those so you can battle all the other guys with the hope of having a district championship, so winning these are good,” Porter said. “They did some good things. But we need to make sure we come back and win on Thursday.”
CAPTION: The many Mustang batters in the first inning who are surrounding head coach Tyler Porter who either will bat or are already on base are Landon White (20, left), Anderson Liscum, Owen Nash, Ben Sowers, Crawford Mattox and Cade Briseno. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
