Rattlers fall to Unicorns in district finale

The Rattlers didn’t get off on the right foot Friday afternoon.

San Marcos dropped its regular season finale to New Braunfels 7-1 after the Unicorns built a seven-run lead coming out of the third inning. The Rattlers got eight runners on base throughout the night but were only able to bring in one of them.

“[Playing New Braunfels] showed us where our weaknesses were. They exploited some of them today, and we’ve got to do a better job of focusing. We missed some calls. We missed some defensive coverage calls. It’s the focus. I don’t think they beat us by really hitting the ball. They got a few hits when they needed them, but we gave them a lot of their opportunities. And we didn’t execute when we needed to,” head coach Bryan Webb said. “They’re a good team. I mean, there’s no doubt. They were like we were last year, they got their eight or nine guys signed to go to college, and they got a good ball club. But, I told these guys to come over here [and] beat them for the seventh-straight time. It's going to [take] a little extra and you’re going to have to play special. It wasn’t our best ball game today. It’s baseball, and they got us today. So, I told them our goal is to go try to find [New Braunfels] in the third round.”

The Rattlers weren’t able to get anything going at the plate in the first and went down in order. New Braunfels hit a grounder to start the inning, but then got two runners on base after a pair of singles. San Marcos forced another groundout, but the Unicorns followed that up with an RBI double to left field to bring in a run. New Braunfels’ rally continued with a two-RBI single to push their lead to 3-0 before San Marcos got a strikeout to end the inning.

Senior third baseman Dylan Nunez kicked off the second with a standup double, and freshman outfielder Elijah Ramirez was hit by a pitch to put two runners on base with no outs. The Rattlers hit a double play in the next at-bat though, and then flew out to center to end the inning with a runner stranded at third. San Marcos slowed down the Unicorns’ offense in the second, with senior pitcher Reagan Chomel only giving up a walk while putting down the rest of New Braunfels’ batters to keep them off the board.

Junior catcher Colson Geesee knocked a single to right field to start the third, and a ball from the Unicorns’ pitcher advanced him to second. San Marcos put down a sacrifice bunt to move him to third, but the Rattlers hit two-straight groundouts to end the inning. New Braunfels really got going in the third. The Unicorns started the inning by hitting a single and then forcing a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. San Marcos elected to make a pitching change afterward, bringing in senior Vlario Prado. New Braunfels followed that up with an RBI single to push the lead to 4-0, and then knocked an RBI double to the outfield to extend their lead to five. The Unicorns’ offensive momentum continued, putting down a suicide squeeze to bring in their sixth run, and then capped off the inning with a sacrifice fly that brought in a seventh before the Rattlers threw out a runner at third to end the inning.

San Marcos’ first two batters in the fourth went down on a strikeout and a grounder, and Ramirez followed that up with a single up the middle. Senior Marco Duenez also got on base with another single to right field, but a groundout ended the inning and stranded two runners on base for San Marcos. New Braunfels started the inning with a single, and the Rattlers decided to make another pitching change with sophomore Caleb Gomez taking over the mound. Gomez walked his first batter, but stranded both of the Unicorns’ runners by recording three outs in a row afterwards to hold New Braunfels scoreless in the fourth.

“Younger guys got some experience. They got to see what it’s like to be in a high intensity game. Sometimes your eyes have to get awake, you have to get a big eye to see kind of what’s going on. And it’s a little faster here. I tried to tell them — like the old Hoosiers deal — the basketball goal is still the same and the free throw line is still the same, but the intensity and the speed of the game is a lot faster,” Webb said. “So, we got some experience today, and it wasn’t all negative. We got some hits when we needed them, we just didn’t get the hits when the runners were on. We kind of got out of character a couple times at the plate and swung at some bad pitches, but Holt threw a good ballgame and we’ve seen him our whole life. We grew up with him, and he got us today. Like I said, our goal is to go get ready for the playoffs and go as far as we can and try to find them in the playoffs again.”

Ramirez smacked his second single of the day in the top of the fifth, but the purple and white weren’t able to get anybody else on base in their at-bats. The Unicorns got two runners on to start the sixth with a single and a batter being hit by a pitch, but Gomez once again stranded both with a grounder to end the inning keeping New Braunfels off the board.

Chomel smacked a double to the left-center gap to start the sixth, setting up San Marcos’ sole run of the game to be scored. The next two Rattler batters struck out and grounded into an out, but Duenez dinged a hardhit ball to the Unicorns’ shortstop who committed an error bringing in a run for San Marcos. San Marcos struck out to end the inning after that. Freshman Jack Vasquez took over the pitching duties to start the sixth, and New Braunfels started the inning with a single. Vasquez kept his composure though, forcing the Unicorns into a double play to put two outs on the board. New Braunfels did hit a double afterwards, but Vasquez stranded him by forcing a pop out to end the inning.

The Rattlers went down in order in the top of the seventh, ending the game 7-1.

San Marcos will return to the field this weekend for a Bi-District showdown against the San Antonio Brandeis Broncos.

Game 1 is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Northside ISD with Game 2 set for 7 p.m. Friday at San Marcos. If needed, Game 3 will be played 12 p.m. Saturday also in San Marcos.

“We were coming over here and just trying not to make this a bigger game than it really was. I told them before we came out, ‘you know what’s on the line here, but if you go in here and you make it a bigger game and try to do something different, you’re going to get beat.’ Well, we had to come on the road. Odds were against us. Had a good guy on the mound. We thought we had a good game plan and they got us,” Webb said. “We’re going to go back today, we’re not going to sit here and pout over this one. We got Brandeis coming up next week and we’re going to move forward. We’re going to go back and meet right now and eat a cheeseburger and talk about what we need to do to get better and figure it out tomorrow.”

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