Bowie's 13 runs too much for San Marcos at home

San Marcos is trying to keep its demeanor strong, even against the best teams. 

Austin Bowie has been the most dominant team in the district through five games and the numbers prove it. Over their last four games coming into Friday night’s matchup with San Marcos, the team hasn’t given up an earned run in district play. The Rattlers managed to get two runs but still, Bowie's dominance held strong in a 13-2 win over the hosts in five innings. 

Head coach Cathy Stoughton said once her team fell behind, the pressure the players put in themselves shouldn’t have been a factor. Especially when this team has multiple comeback wins including their win over Del Valle this same week. 

“We know that when we play a team with a strong offense that we're gonna score more runs and we're very capable,” Stoughton said. “Some balls didn't fall. Some balls went right at people and we didn't have timely hitting. We had some opportunities with runners on base and we didn't get the hits we needed. Once we got behind tonight, mentally we were pressing and putting more pressure on ourselves and we’re trying hard not to make a mistake instead of trying to do things right.”

Bowie (13-5, 2-1 District 26-6A) managed to score two runs with its high-powered offense in the first inning, but that didn’t change the fight in the Lady Rattlers yet. Sophomore catcher Jessica DeLeon hit a two-RBI home run at the bottom of the first to tie things up at 2-2. The hit marked the first earned run against Bowie in district play. 

Stoughton's sentiments came true in the bottom of the second as she knew two runs wouldn’t be enough to hold off the top team in the district. She was right. Bowie responded by scoring five runs in the top of the second including a three-run shot by Olivia Moreno.

That’s when the pressure weighed down on the hosts.

“Softball is a game of failure,” Stoughton said. “Even if you're batting .300, you’re going to get out seven out of 10 times and we have some girls right now that feel like they have to have a hit every single time, they have to reach base every single time and they need to relax a little bit and not put so much pressure on themselves.”

The San Marcos (9-12, 3-3) offense stalled out after the first as they didn’t score for the duration of the game. Meanwhile, with two outs at the top of the fifth, Bowie's Anya German sent another shot over the Rattlers’ home wall which gave them a run-rule victory 13-2 over San Marcos. 

San Marcos looks to erase the memories of Friday’s outing by trying to get back on the win column against Austin Akins (3-5, 0-1) next Tuesday on the road at 7 p.m. As the Lady Rattlers get over this loss, the coaching staff wants their team to play with an edge, as they did over the last two wins in district play.

“The girls need to take away from this that we're capable of with our lineup and our offense,” Stoughton said. “We've got hitters as well and we just have to believe that we can put up numbers like that. I think it's just a  mentally we put ourselves in a hole. We started playing on our heels instead of playing with the relaxed demeanor that we've had over the last couple of weeks.”