One play foreshadows a tough night for softball team

• Sophomore third baseman Cheyenne Thompson moves runners and gets them home with a swing of her bat.
• Marble Falls sophomore centerfielder Marisol Ramos makes the catch before throwing to third for a double play against Lampasas. Photos by Jennifer Fierro/TexasChalkTalk.com
• Junior second baseman Kylie Roberts throws to sophomore third baseman Cheyenne Thompson to ensure the Lady Badger stays on third.

The Marble Falls High School softball team lost to Lampasas 13-2 April 5 in District 24-4A play.

The first inning may have hinted what kind of night it was going to be.

The Lady Badgers took a 2-0 lead and recorded the defensive play of the game on the Lady Mustangs’ lead-off batter. A grounder was hit to the shortstop, who was sitting down when she threw to first. But the ball forced the first baseman to leave the base to make the catch. As the defender took a stab at the ball, she lowered her arm in time to tag the Lady Mustang as she was running to beat the throw to the bag.

Still, Marble Falls head coach Alex Lozoya noted his team didn’t back down. Instead, they kept fighting, holding Lampa sas to no runs in the second inning with runners on base.

Lozoya noted that sophomore center fielder Marisol Ramos caught a ball hit to her then threw to third base for the double play to end the second inning.

“Marisol tracks it down,” he said. “I thought, ‘We grew up.’ That’s a bases-loaded jam and we got out of it. It’s a confidence booster."

But the Lady Badgers got it going again, plating five runs in the third in ning, all after two outs.

Marble Falls got on the board in its half of the inning. Freshman Jocelyn Suarez reached base on an infield single then went to second on a single by junior Kylie Roberts, and later scored on a pass ball. Sophomore Cheyenne Thompson picked up an RBI single to trim the deficit to 7-2.

Lampasas added five runs in the fifth inning. "The third and fifth innings were when the walks began to haunt us,” Lozoya said. “This is what I said after the game. It is unrealistic for me to ask the defense and the pitching to be as perfect as possible to give us a chance, but you have to. Cause you’re not in control of what happens after you hit the ball.”

In the seventh inning, after Suarez and Roberts hit singles to get on base and moved a base on a 4-3 out by Thompson, the next batter struck out and the third batter hit into a 1-3 out to end the contest.

“Jocelyn and Kylie had good games,” the coach said. “Cheyenne Thompson did a good job, too. She moved them in the fifth inning and got the RBI in the third.”

Lampasas sophomore pitcher Brooklyn Farmer had at least one strikeout per inning.

While the outcome wasn’t what Marble Falls wanted, Lozoya said he is seeing positives. One was shortstop Suarez, who made accurate throws that allowed her teammates to make plays at each base.

“Jocelyn played a lot more confident," he said. “She had a great mentoring session with (assistant coach Hailey) Wooten. You could see Jocelyn took the coaching and did a great job.”

Marble Falls will travel to play at Georgetown Gateway at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 9.

Jennifer Fierro publishes reports about area youth athletic events on her website TexasChalk-Talk.com. To send her a note, email fierrojenni fer@yahoo.com.