San Marcos fell to New Braunfels Canyon, 4-3, in an extra-inning affair on Tuesday night.
The Cougars plated a run in the top of the ninth to take the lead. The Rattlers got a base runner on when junior Ryan Wilder drew a one-out walk in the bottom frame. But San Marcos couldn’t complete the rally.
“I think our kids battled for nine freaking innings and I’m proud of them,” head coach Bryan Webb said. “You know, we’re not going to the playoffs, so we could come out here and slop around and not play hard but we didn’t. We played hard. We left our opportunities out there. That’s just, we’ve got to take advantage (of opportunities).”
San Marcos (9-20, 2-10 26-6A) staged a two-out rally in the first inning to grab an early lead against Canyon (18-11, 8-5).
Wilder and junior Gage Mason hit two singles and a walk by sophomore Selvin Anderson loaded the bases. The Rattlers plated two runs thanks to RBI walks from senior Ruben Miranda and senior Julian DeLeon.
The Cougars responded in the third inning with a three-run frame to take their first lead of the night.
But San Marcos answered in the bottom of the third when Miranda led off with a triple and DeLeon followed with an RBI triple to tie the game.
The Rattlers had an opportunity to regain the lead in the fifth after a walk placed Mason on base. He advanced to third on a stolen base and a passed ball. Mason raced home when Canyon lost track of a passed ball. But a close play at the plate eliminated San Marcos’ threat.
“I tried to force a run in there at home, whether it’s a good call or a bad call or not, we got to try and force that run in some how,” Webb said.
The game went into a stalemate and neither team had a chance at ending the game until the ninth inning.
A base hit from Cougar sophomore Michael Bassett and a hit by pitch on junior Corey Moos put two runners on for Canyon. An error allowed the Cougars to take a 4-3 lead.
San Marcos had an opportunity to even the score with Mason’s walk but the Rattlers fell short.
“We had too many strikeouts with runners on,” Webb said. “Our pitching was great. Our defense was great. Again, we scored three runs and just hit the cruise control. We left it out there again. The old bugaboo of runners in scoring position got us again. We had our opportunities to win it and we didn’t.”
San Marcos travels to Canyon for its penultimate game of the season on Thursday — first pitch is set for 7 p.m. Webb said the Rattlers have no plans on quitting. They’ll continue to try and find a way to capitalize on their opportunities.
“We keep playing fundamental and we keep trying at the plate to solve the issues that we’re having,” Webb said. “It’s not really changing anything, it’s just the approach at the plate and getting good counts. It is what it is. Like I said, my seniors have not quit. They show up everyday. They’ve got good character and they’ve got good integrity.
“We’ve got a week left. I told them, ‘Let’s enjoy every minute we’ve got.’ I’ve seen most of these kids grow up with my kids from little league up. I told them, ‘I’m not going to quit on them and stay true to yourself and true to the program and let’s finish this right.’”
