Rattlers comeback to beat No. 10 New Braunfels

The Rattlers took every punch the Unicorns had Friday night, but still had an answer.

San Marcos rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the top of the fifth inning to secure a 5-4 win as well as the season series over New Braunfels. Sophomore pitcher Caleb Gomez entered the game in the fifth to stop the bleeding and recorded nine straight outs to halt the Unicorns’ lead while allowing the Rattlers to mount a comeback at the plate.

“Well [tonight was about] controlling your breathing, controlling your thoughts, and just being resilient when the opportunity gives and handling adversity. We didn’t panic,” head coach Bryan Webb said. “We were down four, but we had nine outs to go and we told them ‘we’re going to be the toughest nine outs there are,’ and they had good approaches at the plate and we stayed aggressive. We didn’t back off and we were fortunate to put those runs across right there.”

Senior Vlario Prado started on the mound for the Rattlers and didn’t allow a hit in the first inning, despite an error in the outfield allowing a runner to get to third. Senior Tony Diaz was able to get on base with a bunt single for San Marcos but nothing else got going at the plate in the bottom of the first.

Prado had to deal with two runners on with two outs in the second due to a walk and blip single that slowly bounced to third, but got out of the inning with a grounder to strand both runners and keep New Braunfels scoreless. Senior Dylan Nunez smacked a one-out triple to the right field wall at the plate, but the Rattlers weren’t able to drive him home.

The Unicorns hit a single to right field after their first batter struck out with a grounder advancing the runner to second with two outs. New Braunfels capitalized on the runner in scoring position, knocking an RBI double to left field to bring in the first run of the game. Prado kept the damage minimal though, stranding the runner at second heading into the bottom of the third. The Rattlers went down in order at the plate.

New Braunfels got a walk and a single to put runners on first and second in the inning, but Prado worked out of the jam to strand both runners after forcing a grounder, keeping the Unicorns’ lead at 1-0. The Rattlers went down in order at the plate once again.

After Prado pitched a walk to start the inning, San Marcos made a pitching change and brought in freshman Jack Vasquez. After the Unicorns drew another walk, they hit a two-RBI triple to clear the bases and extend their lead to 3-0. A wild pitch brought in another run during the next at-bat that led to a walk, and the Rattlers elected to make another pitching change with Gomez heading to the mound. Gomez pitched three-straight strikeouts to strand a runner in scoring position and hold New Braunfels’ lead at 4-0.

San Marcos had some offensive juice of their own in the fifth as well.

Senior Reagan Chomel kicked off the rally with a single to left field, and sophomore Colson Geesee added another runner to the mix after a strikeout to put two on for the Rattlers. Senior Marco Duenez put the ball in play on a grounder to first and the Unicorns committed an error to load the bases. Another strikeout at the plate followed for San Marcos, but their two-out rally had just begun. San Marcos brought in their first run of the game after getting hit by a pitch, and then the Rattlers put another ball in play but New Braunfels committed another error throwing to second that brought in two more runs to cut the lead to 4-3. That brought up Diaz, who knocked an RBI single to tie the game at 4-4. San Marcos popped out afterwards to end the rally, but responded to their fourrun deficit with a fourrun inning in the fifth.

“We just stayed calm, Coach Webb teaches us to stay calm. (We were down) 4-0, but (for us it was) no worries, (we know) we can get that back in an inning,” Diaz said. “Our bats got going and then I came in and Coach Webb told me to stay calm and do my thing, and I did my thing (to tie the game).”

Gomez’s momentum on the mound continued in the sixth, striking out all three Unicorns that stepped to the plate while keeping things tied up. The Rattlers were ready to take advantage of and reward Gomez’s execution on the mound.

“You saw (Gomez) getting more and more confident every single pitch. It was good to see because he’s worked his tail off. He’s had a little bit of an arm injury — just soreness — and to see glimpses of what he’s going to be, I mean, that was a great outing. I saw him (even) getting a little cocky on the mound out there,” Webb said. “He waited for his opportunity and never complained. We kept telling him his time was coming and he came in and when his time was called, he got the outs we really needed. I’m super proud of that kid. He’s just a sophomore and he’s (only) 15 years old. He’s still growing and we’re glad he’s on our side.”

Nunez got the first hit of the inning, knocking a single to left field with one down. Geesee followed that up with another single to put two runners on, and then Duenez drew a walk to load the bases for the second-straight inning. New Braunfels made a pitching change afterwards, but couldn’t field a grounder at third cleanly which brought in the Rattlers’ fifth run of the game and gave them a 5-4 lead. The Purple and White drew another walk to load the bases again, but didn’t get anything else going.

Gomez continued the dominance he’d displayed all game in the top of the seventh, putting the Unicorns down in order to tally nine straight outs since entering the game while securing the comeback win for San Marcos.

“(Pitching) coach Trey Davis was talking to me like an hour before the game and he said ‘we’re gonna need you, stay locked in,’ and I did,” Gomez said. “(My mentality coming to the mound was) don’t give the ball back, get all of them (out) and be a bulldog.”

The Rattlers will return to the field against East Central at East Central high school on Apr. 9 at 7 p.m.

“Well, it’s just two ball games. Like I said, after Easter we had eight games left and our goal was to win as many of those eight as we could to get to the playoffs and punch a ticket. That’s a good win — that’s a playoff environment tonight. That’s a good ball club over there. They’re going to, going to be right there at the end in the race,” Webb said. “We know that we’ve got to go back over to New Braunfels (for the) last game of the season. That’s going to be for the marbles. There’s a lot of stuff happening in the district right now. I gotta go see some scores, but I fully expect to see New Braunfels make a run this year. They’re well coached. They got a good team and that’s a good ball club. We’re fortunate to get out of here.”

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