During the top of the seventh inning, head coach Cathy Stoughton made a pitching change and brought in sophomore Kayli Saenz. That was the third replacement of the game on Tuesday night for San Marcos.
The Lady Rattlers were making all sorts of mistakes inside the circle. They were throwing wild pitches, not getting strikeouts and walked a total of nine people throughout the seven innings. Six of those walks happened in a span of a little over one inning.
The mistakes added up Tuesday night against the Austin Bowie Lady Bulldogs. San Marcos was defeated, 15-4, in their final home game of the season. Head coach Cathy Stoughton preaches about how important the pitcher is to the game and when that person isn’t playing their best, it affects the rest of the team.
“It comes down to pitching,” Stoughton said. “What we talked to the pitchers about tonight is, you’re tying your defense’s hands behind their back when we can’t get it done in the circle. Pitching has been our Achilles (heel) all year and it reared its ugly head again tonight, and it’s just frustrating.”
Sophomore Kaylie Juergens started in the circle for the Lady Rattlers (14-13-1, 4-9 district). During the first inning, they gave up one run off an RBI single. San Marcos was also able to register an RBI single from sophomore Angelina Alvarez and with the run from senior Kaylee Cavazos, the hosts tied the game.
Bowie (19-7, 10-2) started to pull away early during the second inning. Juergens walked the first batter of the inning, which led Bowie to a few singles, a double and a fielder’s choice. The Lady Bulldogs took the lead, 5-1.
Each team was scoreless during the third and fourth innings, but Bowie was able to score off a wild pitch from Juergens during the top of the fifth, which prompted Stoughton to make her first pitching change of the night, bringing in junior Mercedes Layton. The Lady Bulldogs started to turn up the heat during the sixth inning, and that’s when the Lady Rattlers started making a lot of their mistakes.
During the top of the sixth inning, Layton walked three batters and Bowie scored two runs off wild pitches. At the bottom of the sixth, San Marcos got another run on the board from sophomore Eliza Lozano after freshman Jessica Deleon recorded an RBI single.
The seventh and final inning of the game was the most brutal for the Lady Rattlers. It seemed like the Lady Bulldogs couldn’t stay off the bases, and they were fully loaded at one point. Layton walked three more batters during the frame for a total of six in less than two innings. That caused Stoughton to make her second pitching change of the game and brought in Saenz. Bowie scored five runs in the seventh alone. San Marcos was able to bring in two more runs from freshman Brycelyn Pinales and junior Eliana Silva off a double from Lozano.
The Lady Rattlers dealt with a lot of different variables this year. They’ve had injuries all season and most of the team is underclassmen. A good amount of them are freshmen, so they’re having to learn and adjust to playing 6A varsity softball. It’s just a matter of time, fine-tuning their skills and studying their mistakes they made this year in order to be fully prepared. Stoughton believes that they will be a much better squad next year when everyone is healthy again.
“We’ve had some very bright spots and we’ve got a bright future,” Stoughton said. “We can sit and talk about all the adversity we’ve had to face, but we’re not the first to face adversity and we won’t be the last. I feel like going into next year, everything we’ve faced this year is gonna make us stronger. When we’re 100% healthy next year and we’ve got everybody firing on all cylinders, we’re going to be tough to beat.”
The Lady Rattlers will face the Austin Akins Lady Eagles in their final game of the season on Friday at 7 p.m. at Butler Field. Stoughton says her team is going to keep pushing and she hopes they’ll fix the mistakes they made on Tuesday night.
“We’ll recover, we’ll get ready for Akins,” Stoughton said. “We’ve definitely got to figure out the circle and give our team a better chance … we’re ready to go get them, we’ll get over this. It’ll sting, but we’ll wake up tomorrow, the sun will come up and we’ll start preparing.”
