Marble Falls baseball beats Taylor
CAPTION: Junior pitcher John Alan Whittle faced a total of 24 batters and struck out 8 in a complete win against the Ducks. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Marble Falls High School baseball team defeated Taylor 6-1 April 14 in District 24-4A play.
The Mustangs (18-5, 6-3) scored a run in the first inning when senior Canon Cochran hit a RBI single to bring junior pitcher John Alan Whittle home fafter he drew a walk and went to second on a single by junior Grant Carter for the 1-0 lead that held until the sixth inning.
“Taylor threw a pitcher that kind of kept us off balance,” head coach Tyler Porter said. “We left guys on base. They had a little leftie who kept us off balance. He walked a couple, we got a couple of hits.”
But once the Mustangs got going, they went.
Casey Layton “had a big single to get things going,” the coach said.
He was followed by Ben Sowers, who hit a single behind him. Then Owen Nash, Whittle and Carter each drew walks and Cochran scored two runs off a single. Whittle and Carter each scored a run off their walks. Cochran went 2-for-4 at the plate with 3 RBI. Cade Briseno and Landon White each had 2 hits. As a team Marble Falls had 10 hits, 6 walks and 9 stolen bases.
“In baseball terms, and I’m not trying to say it in a bad way, but sometimes you get a leftie, who doesn’t throw very hard and it’s just hard to adjust,” Porter said. “We faced the kid from Lampasas (April 9) who throws pretty hard and then you see this kid who’s throwing substantially slower from the left side. And it’s just a little bit harder to adjust. So it took our kids a minute, but they got it.”
Meanwhile, Whittle allowed one unearned run off three hits and a walk with 8 strikeouts and threw no more than 80 pitches while facing 24 batters.
“He threw a complete game,” the coach said. “He wanted to. We’d planned on throwing him shorter, but he wanted to finish. And 75-80 pitches is not much for him.”
Though Whittle took care of eight of the 21 outs, the Mustangs made every defensive play.
“Very much so,” Porter said.
Because of the rain, Taylor’s staff didn’t have a chance to mow the field, so the Mustangs had to adjust to taller, thicker grass.
“Some of the plays our kids were making were tougher than they should have been,” Porter said. “It did rain a lot over there, so the grass was about an inch long. So everybody was flying up, so a little bit challenging for our kids. They did a great job, and I think our pitchers have gotten used to the fact that generally when the ball’s put in play, they’re going to get an out out of it, which is a nice feeling.”
The Mustangs will complete the series against Taylor at 5:30 p.m. in a varsity only contest Friday, April 17, then play their final regular season home game against Jarrell Tuesday, April 21, with the junior varsity playing a t 4:30 p.m. and the varsity at 7 p.m.
Following the regular season home finale, the program is honoring former players, specifically those who competed on Scearce Baseball Field. The field is the site of the new multipurpose indoor facility that voters approved in May 2025. Construction on that facility is expected to begin once the baseball team’s season ends.
Former head coach Ronnie Scearce and his brother, Mike, who was in charge of field maintenance, will be in attendance. Porter said the current players and coaches are looking forward to welcoming the alumni and the Scearce family to enjoy the field with them one more time. The invitation is to any former player, no matter the era he played, Porter said.
Currently the Mustangs have three games left including a road trip to Jarrell Friday, April 24. Marble Falls is two games behind Lampasas (16-9-4, 8-3) in the district standings. But the Badgers have only one game left in the regular season, at Salado (17-9, 9-0).
CAPTION: Junior Grant Carter was part of an offensive unit that adjusted and took advantage when the Mustangs had their opportunities. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
