Rattlers fall to Steele snapping winning streak

The Rattlers weren’t able to get going the way they wanted to Tuesday night.

San Marcos ended its two-game district winning streak in a 7-3 loss to Cibolo Steele where the Rattlers trailed just 3-1 heading into the final inning. The Knights’ four-run seventh inning ended up being too much for the Rattlers to overcome.

“Well, this is not the same team that showed up tonight. We just couldn’t get anything going offensively. We struggled on defense, which — on both sides of the plate — we’ve been doing really well. I think they had three earned runs of the seven. We opened the door. We had plays that we should have made that extended innings for them,” Head Coach Cathy Stoughton said. “At the plate, we weren’t patient, we weren’t disciplined, we were chasing a lot of pitches. [With] the slower pitching it’s harder to wait on the ball, but we’ve been working on it, and we need to hit the ball better. You can’t win again if you can’t score. And for us, the momentum when we don’t score early [and] when we don’t hit early tends to get to us. So tonight I think we started playing a little too defensively mentally, and we just couldn’t dig ourselves out of the hole.”

Sophomore pitcher Adelaida Sierra got the start in the circle once again, and started off the game in rhythm putting down Steele in order while striking out two batters in the top of the first. After San Marcos’ first two batters of the game went down in the bottom of the inning, seniors Ava Serna and Jessica DeLeon both knocked singles to put runners on first and second. The Knights forced a groundout to get out of the jam while stranding both runners and kept things scoreless.

Steele was able to get a runner on in the second who went all the way to second after a wild throw to first, but DeLeon caught her trying to steal third from behind the plate and threw the runner out. Sierra followed that up by throwing her third strikeout and then forced a groundout to put up another scoreless inning. The Rattlers went down in order at the plate.

Sierra started off the third with two-straight strikeouts, but the Knights found a way to put together a two-out rally. Steele started off with a bunt single and a wild pitch in the circle, which put the runner at second. The Knights drew a walk after that, and that’s when they hit an RBI-double up the middle to take the first lead of the game at 1-0. Sierra kept the damage where it was — finishing off the inning by forcing a flyout. San Marcos once again went down in order at the plate.

Defensive woes unfortunately bit the Rattlers in the fourth, with fielding errors allowing Steele’s first two batters to get on base as well as bringing in their second run of the game. Sierra followed that up with a strikeout and the Knights put down a sacrifice bunt to put both runners in scoring position with two down. Steele hit an RBI single up the middle to extend their lead to 3-0 before Sierra put down the next batter. San Marcos made solid contact in every at-bat in the bottom of the inning, but they all resulted in deep flyouts in the outfield.

“We had several balls that hung up in the air, but we talked to the girls before the game about the wind affecting (the game) and not trying to hit the ball in the air (and) trying to hit line drives and ground balls. Steele did a good job putting the ball in play and putting pressure on our defense and making us make mistakes,” Stoughton said. “Their pitcher, we couldn’t get comfortable against her so kudos to them. It’s just frustrating to come out and have a game like this after the week that we had last week. But we’ve got to move on, and we’ve got to focus on Judson.”

The Rattlers were able to get some offense going in their second-tolast at-bat of the game. San Marcos started off the inning with a single and a wild pitch moved the runner to second. The Rattlers put down a grounder to advance the runner to third, and Freshman Arianna Flores followed that up with an opposite-field single to left field to bring in their first run of the game. The Knights closed out the inning after that putting the score at 3-1.

Steele’s first batter of the seventh was hit by a pitch, and a fielding error followed to put two runners on base. The Knights hit a grounder afterwards and San Marcos tried to get the runner at home but weren’t able to make the tag. Steele followed that up with a two-run single to extend their lead to 6-1, and kept the offense going with another RBI single after a groundout advanced the runner. Sierra ended the inning with a strikeout leaving the score at 7-1.

The San Marcos didn’t go down without a fight with the game on the line, with Selena Silva knocking an RBI-double with two outs to extend the game and cut into Steele’s lead. The Rattlers’ Flores had her second RBI waiting in the wings, as she drove in Silva while diving to first base to beat out a throw from shortstop. San Marcos wasn’t able to keep the rally going though, with a groundout ending the game at 7-3.

“We’re gonna definitely work on our defense (going into this week) and try to fix some things that weren’t going right for us tonight,” Stoughton said. “(We’ll) definitely get some offensive work in (with) chasing better pitches, getting better looks, (and) hitting the ball where it’s pitched instead of trying to hit everything to one location. There’s just a lot of tweaks that we’ll make this week to get ready for the game.”

San Marcos returns to the field on the road at Judson High School on Apr. 5 at 7 p.m.

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