Errors cost Rattlers in loss to East Central
San Marcos just wasn’t themselves Friday night.
The Rattlers fell 2-0 to East Central after a pair of errors from San Marcos allowed both runs to score for the Hornets. San Marcos struggled at the plate throughout the night and weren’t able to string together the hits they needed to spur rallies at the plate and put runs on the board.
“[We] didn’t make routine plays. We didn’t come out [the way we needed to]. All we had to do was make some routine plays, get this thing late, [and] tie [it] up. We botched the ball, kicked it around, missed some signals [and] made some base runner mistakes. The Renteria kid, he got us. He kept us off balance,” head coach Bryan Webb said. “It seemed like every ball we hit, every bounce went their way and those are the kind of nights you’ve got to make sure that your routine is fundamentally sound. We weren’t tonight, and they got us.”
The first four innings of the game moved along fairly quickly, with both teams being held scoreless at the plate. Senior pitcher Vlario Prado headed the mound during the four shutout innings. The Rattlers were on their way to potentially holding East Central to another scoreless inning in the fifth, but an overthrow at first and then a wild throw to second from the outfield afterwards brought in a run to give the Hornets a 1-0 lead. San Marcos kept the damage minimal though, not allowing any other runs in the inning.
“Well, we’re still counting how good we are and we went and beat New Braunfels and that was a big week. We went over there and beat East Central at their place. We got humbled a little bit tonight,” Webb said. “We didn’t have a real good workout yesterday and we played just like we practiced yesterday. So we’ll go back to work in the morning at 9:30 and we’ll figure out the problems and figure out how we’re going to fix them.”
Sophomore pitcher Caleb Gomez took over the pitching duties in the sixth, but another error in the infield with two outs brought in East Central’s second run of the game. The Rattlers once again made sure that was the only run that crossed the plate in the inning, but San Marcos’ struggles at the plate continued. The Rattlers put down the Hornets in order in the seventh, giving them one last chance to extend or walk off the game. The Rattlers went down in order in the bottom of the inning, ending the game.
San Marcos returns to the field next Tuesday at Clemens high school to take on the Buffaloes at 7 p.m.
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