Marble Falls baseball loses to Gatesville in playoffs

CAPTION: Head coach Tyler Porter (left) gives instructions to batters Canon Cochran, Landon White (20), Casey Layton, Atreyu Machacek (12) and Cade Briseno (4) as assistant coach Hayden Kesselring listens in. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School baseball team lost to Gatesville 8-2 in game two and 7-3 in game three of the Class 4A Division I bi-district series April 30.

The Mustangs finish the season with a 24-7 overall record, 11-3 in District 24-4A play to finish second.

When the bus stopped for the players to get their postgame meals, head coach Tyler Porter observed there wasn’t much chatter.

“Nobody’s smiling or slapping each other on the back or giggling too much,” he said. “They weren’t very happy they lost. We did evaluations, some quick stuff (May 1). All of them basically echoed the same sentiment that we were better than what the results show, even though we won 24 games, which is a pretty good year no matter who you’re playing, but nobody was happy.”

In game two, Marble Falls scored first when Casey Layton was hit by a pitch that resulted in a run coming home. He ended up going 2-for-2 at the plate with 2 RBI. Sophomore Crawford Mattox also had 2 hits.

The Hornets, who had to win the contest to force a third game, scored five runs on four hits highlighted by a RBI double on a 0-2 count. Junior pitcher John Alan Whittle was credited with the loss by allowing 7 earned runs off 7 hits with 2 strikeouts and a walk in four innings.

“I mean 8-2 wasn’t really indicative of how that game went,” Porter said. “We just had a couple moments that we didn’t accomplish what we should in a few moments, and I think it made this score a little bit worse than it was.”

In the third contest, Marble Falls took a 2-0 lead when Mattox’s walk and Layton’s line out each brought a run home.

But Gatesville answered in the third by scoring four runs highlighted by a three-run homer. Pitcher Mattox was credited with the loss by allowing 4 earned runs off 7 hits with 4 strikeouts and 2 walks in five innings.

“Credit Gatesville – they were good, and I’m not taking anything away from them,” Porter said. “I don’t want to sound like we’re better because they beat us – that’s sports, that’s how it goes. And they definitely played well, but I feel like there are some some things — uncharacteristic mistakes — that we don’t typically make that we made, some things (don’t) show up in the box score necessarily, but stuff that had we executed a little bit better, then it might have been different. So I feel like it’s one of those years we left ourselves on the table, which is always disappointing.”

He noted the Mustangs were able to hit the ball, just not in the gaps or open spaces that typically lead to multiple bases and runs. In the second game, the Mustangs had the bases loaded near the top of the order and a ball was sent deep into the outfield. In most games, that’s a multi-base hit with at least two runs scored. But the defender, leaning against the wall, made the catch.

“Those little moments just didn’t go our way this time,” the coach said.

The Mustangs say good-bye to seniors Canon Cochran, Andrew Elwartowski and Atreyu Machacek, who were part of a program that advanced to the playoffs three of the last four years including a district title in 2023.

Porter recalled a moment early in the season that contributed to how it unfolded. Mattox found a prediction for the order of the district finish with Salado, Burnet, Lampasas and Taylor making the postseason.

“Crawford stuck it on the bulletin board,” he said. “That’s a kid who expects to make the playoffs, and I think we have a lot like that. We have good kids who play well. We just didn’t have some of our best moments. And that’s kind of how baseball goes sometimes. I feel like most of our kids sincerely have gotten to the point where the expectation is to make the playoffs. We need to go rounds – three rounds, four rounds deep to have a good season. That’s where we need to get and where this program should be soon.”

CAPTION: Casey Layton made the most of his plate appearances in bringing runners home. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro