SMHS SOFTBALL
The Rattlers dropped their district home game against Buda Johnson, losing to the Jaguars 4-0.
San Marcos falls to 813 overall and 1-3 in district play. Johnson improves to 12-10 overall and 2-2 in district play.
“We cleaned up a lot of the mistakes that we’ve been making on defense and developed our confidence,” Head Coach Cathy Stoughton said. “The kids were positive to come out against a team that’s at the top of the district and fighting for the top spot. Hopefully this is a confidence builder for us on what we’re capable of as a team.”
After giving up over 10 runs in their last three district games, the Rattlers defense took a step forward, holding the Jaguars to just four runs and only committing one error.
For a young group, Stoughton believed the team was taking the necessary steps on improving their game in one of the toughest districts in 6A Region IV.
“It was a very big step in the right direction,” Stoughton said. “We do have a lot of youth, and a lot of young girls. When you play in a district like this where you have to show up every single night, sometimes one game can dictate momentum. We definitely had our ups and downs, but for them to show up and show out tonight, the way they did, the outfield did an amazing job. Emalyn Martinez did an amazing job at third, Emery Cisneros had a great diving catch and Juju [Garcia] at pitching just kept them off balance.
“They were putting the ball in play, letting our defense work. There were a lot of good things that happened tonight that I’m very pleased with.”
However, Stoughton was adamant about the team’s need to improve, especially on offense where the Rattlers managed just three hits against the Jaguars.
“We just need to get more timely hits,” Stoughton said. “One thing that we’re struggling with right now is our runners and scoring position. We need to be able to push those runs across. We get runs, we get runners on base early in the inning with nobody out, one out, and we can’t seem to get them across.
“That’s just something that comes with time. Hopefully we’ll have a little bit more clutch hitting and timely hitting, because we have hits here and there, or we force errors but we can’t complete [the process]”.
The Rattlers will be back on the road Tuesday when San Marcos faces the Schertz Clemens Buffaloes. Clemens enters the game with a 13-5 overall record and a 1-3 district record.
First pitch is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Clemens High School.
