Errors cost Rattlers in ‘frustrating’ extra-inning loss to Cibolo Steele

Bryan Webb had no words for his team Tuesday. 

San Marcos’ head coach had no rah-rah speech or positive spin for San Marcos’ 6-5 extra-inning loss to Cibolo Steele. 

The Rattlers entered the top of the seventh with a 5-1 lead but two costly errors and timely hitting from the Knights allowed them to tie the game. Steele won the game with RBI single by junior Caleb Troutt in the 10th inning. 

“We gave it up,” Webb said. “We didn’t finish. We had it right where we wanted it. We didn’t finish and that seventh inning, they tied it but we had opportunities in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th to win it and we just didn’t do it. We’ve got to hit with guys in (scoring position). Kuddos to Steele. They kept battling. They kept playing and that’s the second one-run ballgame we’ve lost at home that we had our opportunities to win it and we’ve got to win those games.” 

The Knights (12-9. 3-1 26-6A) got on the board early with a run in the top of the first. But San Marcos (7-13, 1-3) brought home two runs to grab a 2-1 advantage. 

The Rattlers added two runs in the fourth inning when sophomore center fielder Kannon Webb hit an RBI groundout and a passed ball allowed another Rattler to score. 

San Marcos plated another run in the fifth inning to go up 5-1. 

The Knights took advantage of two outfielding errors in the seventh inning to tie the game at 5-5. 

The Rattlers loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but couldn’t bring home the game-winning run. 

The game went into a stalemate in extra innings until Troutt’s RBI single in the 10th. San Marcos had an opportunity to force the game into the 11 with a runner in scoring position but it couldn’t finish the rally. 

“It is frustrating,” Webb said. “We got beat. We didn’t do it when we had opportunities.” 

San Marcos senior pitcher Ruben Miranda Jr. put together a strong outing on the mound. He struck out seven on Tuesday. 

“He’s pitched his guts out,” Webb said. “We’re not giving him the run support that he needs and as soon as we get complacent and we got the Nolan Ryan kind of cliche to him, where we get a couple runs and we think we can sit back and it doesn’t happen that way. (Steele) found a way to tie it up and it’s frustrating. I feel bad for Ruben. He battled his guts out.” 

San Marcos travels to Cibolo to take on the Knights on Friday. The Rattlers look to make up for Tuesday’s frustrating outcome. 

“It’s going to take a big two-out hit, bases-loaded hit to get us going,” Webb said. “Somebody’s got to do it. We’ve had our opportunities and percentages have got to be in our favor. It’s going to happen soon. But it’s going to have to happen sooner or later because we’ve got have something happen pretty quick, pretty positive.”