Marble Falls baseball beats Jarrell
CAPTION: Senior pitcher Canon Cochran delivers another gem for the Mustangs en ensuring they finish second in the District 24-4A standings. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School baseball team defeated Jarrell 6-0 April 21 in District 24-4A.
The win clinches a runner-up finish for the Mustangs (21-5, 9-3), who will face Gatesville for a bi-district championship in a best-of-three series in the Class 4A Division I playoffs with dates, sites and times still to be determined.
“All we had to do was win one (of the final two games),” Marble Falls head coach Tyler Porter said. “I definitely did not see us losing two, but still you say that and it doesn’t scare you until it starts scaring you because if you drop the first one, well, there’s a lot of pressure on the last game on the senior night. (With the win), we have breathing room so we can do what we need pitching wise and just make it a fun senior night and have a good time after the game.”
Marble Falls plated a run in the first inning when sophomore Crawford Mattox hit into a double play that sent junior John Alan Whittle home. At the time, the Mustangs had the bases loaded with no outs.
The Mustangs added a run in the sixth inning and four in the seventh inning thanks to freshman Braxton Dicken and juniors Owen Nash and Casey Layton, who had four of their team’s eight hits. Layton had 2 RBI thanks to going 3 for 4.
Mattox went 2 for 4, sophomore Cade Briseno drew three walks, and Whittle stole two bases. As a team Marble Falls drew eight walks.
Senior pitcher Canon Cochran got the win by not allowing a run or a hit with five strikeouts and a walk in three innings. Whittle relived him and recorded seven strikeouts in three innings, while Layton struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh. In all, the pitchers had 15 strikeouts.
Porter said a plan was in place to use these pitchers that way so they didn’t come close to their maximum number of pitches for the week all in an effort to try to keep them fresh for the playoffs.
“We had all our arms,” he said. “You have a plan and the things you want to try differently, to get some kids some at-bats, have some guys throw short when your offense is scoring, you can’t really execute those plans (in a close game) because you’re afraid of mistakes. The plan was to throw them short anyway.”
But thanks to the fact the Mustangs made all but one routine defensive play, Porter could stick to his plan of giving Cochran live innings with Whittle taking over in relief, and Layton closing the door on a Cougar comeback.
“One of the things that we need is a game three starter,” the coach said. “It might be Canon and we’ll start (senior) Atreyu (Machacek April 24 in the regular season finale against Jarrell) for the same reason we’re not starting Mattox. Canon and Crawford have started a lot over the past two years, so their comfort level is there.”
Jarrell pitcher Bryan Tibbetts was credited with the loss by allowing two runs, one unearned, off four hits and seven walks with seven strikeouts.
“He throws pretty hard and has walks and stuff like that,” Porter said. “Don’t take anything away from the kid; he did a good job again. We just struggled with some base-running mistakes. We had a couple of outs on the base paths we don’t normally make. We didn’t play our best baseball until late.”
In addition, the Cougars “didn’t throw the ball around,” Porter said, noting they committed only two errors.
“But our team is kind of what I thought we were going to be,” he said. “Our offense was really good early on – it still is, don’t misunderstand me. But I thought that pitching and defense would kind of be our way. And I was looking at our team ERA. Right now it’s like a 1.30 or something in district, which is really good.”
Though Atreyu will start at pitcher, Porter noted game situations will dictate the number of innings he throws and who will relieve him. Mattox is typically the Friday starter, but Cochran started the second game against Lampasas and threw three innings en route to the win. Freshman Landon White also threw two innings.
“You never know,” the coach said. “We just want to make sure they’ve been in situations they need to be in before we get to the actual situations.”
Jarrell visits Scearce Baseball Field Friday, April 24, to end the regular season with the junior varsity playing at 4:30 p.m. The program will honor its seniors and families before the varsity contest starts at 7 p.m.
Then Porter and the Mustangs will welcome former head coach Ronnie Scearce his brother, Mike, who was in charge of field maintenance for years, and alumni in a “one last pitch” ceremony on the field.
Porter said the current players and staff members are looking forward to meeting the alumni and celebrating around 25 years of Mustang baseball on that field. The ball park is the site of the new multipurpose indoor facility, which was approved by voters as part of the May 2025 bond. Crews will begin work on the multipurpose indoor facility, which is projected to open in late 2027.
CAPTION: Sophomore Braxton Dicken makes the bottom of the batting order dangerous because these Mustangs produce with hits and solid base running. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
