Rattlers stun Westlake on walk-off single and Sierra’s 16 strikeouts

The Rattlers showed up in the clutch Friday night. San Marcos secured a 2-1 win over Austin Westlake after giving up a 1-0 lead heading into the seventh inning. Arianna Flores saved the day for the Rattlers with a walk off one-out double that brought in a runner from second to earn the win. Sophomore pitcher Addy Sierra had another complete game on the mound giving up zero earned runs with a whopping 16 strikeouts.

“It was definitely a nail biter — I think that’s an understatement. It’s the second game in a row that Addy has just dominated. And Westlake right now, I talked to their coach, they’re hitting .398 as a team. For her to come out and put up 16 K’s against a team that has a potent of offense was super impressive,” head coach Cathy Stoughton said. “She definitely kept us in the game. Our offense scuffled a little bit tonight, and that’s something we definitely need to work on. We need to be a little bit more disciplined at the plate about the pitches we’re chasing. We need to be executing the short game a little bit better.”

Sierra picked up where she left off after Tuesday’s 14 strikeout performance against Kyle Lehman, beginning the game with three straight strikeouts to retire the side. The Rattlers were able to get runners on first and third with a walk and a dropped third strike, but ultimately the Lady Chaparrals forced a groundout to end the inning.

Sierra’s dominance continued in the second inning despite the first batter getting on base due to an infield fielding error. Sierra proceeded to get three straight outs to strand the runner on second, including two strikeouts that accounted for the final two outs. The Rattlers weren’t able to get anything going offensively yet, with Westlake forcing San Marcos to go three up, three down.

Once again San Marcos’ pitching led the way. Sierra struck out another three batters, while stranding a runner on first base due to a fielding error. The Lady Rattlers were able to reward Sierra’s stellar performance in the circle this inning, with Senior Ava Serna knocking in an RBI on an opposite field hit with two outs to put San Marcos in front 1-0.

“I just saw that [Westlake’s pitcher] was kind of going inside and outside,” Serna said. “So the first pitch I saw, I just swung and tried [to put enough power on it] to score my run in from second.”

The Rattlers’ sophomore ace only had one strikeout in the top of the fourth, but Sierra kept Westlake scoreless while building her strikeout total to 9 midway through the game. San Marcos did get a single in the bottom of the inning but weren’t able to push it across home plate.

The fifth inning was filled with six straight outs from both teams at the plate. Sierra got another two strikeouts as well as forcing a groundout to complete another scoreless inning, and the Lady Rattlers put the ball in play in every at bat but it resulted in two groundouts and a pop out.

Sierra got another three up, three down inning with two strikeouts to bring her total to 13 through six innings. San Marcos got two runners on base via walks in the bottom of the inning, but weren’t able to get anything else on the scoreboard with the Lady Chaparrals stranding runners at first and third.

“Coming into the top of the 7th, we had talked about it. We knew that they were having trouble making contact against Addy, and we were expecting bunts. And it was just deer in the headlights. I think the nerves got us, it was a close game. It was a tight game,” Stoughton said. “We just made some uncharacteristic mistakes, but to come back in the bottom of the seventh and have Selena get the bunt down and then Ari to win it with the double that was super impressive. We’ve got some young players, some freshmen that are playing some key roles.”

The flow of the game finally got disrupted in the seventh, with two fielding errors on ground balls in the infield leading to runners on first and second for Westlake to start the inning. Their success at the plate continued with a bunt single where a Lady Chap beat out the throw to first, which loaded the bases with no outs. Westlake put down another bunt single and beat out the toss to home to knot things up at 1-1 and extend the game.

Sierra and her catcher would clutch up after that though — in the next atbat senior catcher Jessica DeLeon would throw out the leading runner at third to get a crucial out on the board for the Rattlers. Sierra would force a ground out and a strikeout in the next two at-bats to strand two runners on base while keeping the game tied at 1-1.

Fireworks awaited the Rattlers in the bottom of the seventh.

San Marcos got a runner all the way to second due to multiple fielding errors from Westlake after hitting a ground ball to the infield. The Rattlers had a strikeout afterwards, bringing Flores to the plate with a runner in scoring position. Flores smacked a ball right up the middle and into the outfield, bringing in the game winning run in walk-off fashion to secure the 2-1 victory.

“We were all in [the game] and then there were just a couple of things that happened (in the top of the seventh) and it sort of messed us up, but we still stayed with it,” Flores said. “Then, we had Selena give us an awesome bunt that got her into scoring position and then I got a hit that won us the game. I was reading my field and [saw] there was an open spot and I took that opportunity.”

Now will look to refocus after the major win with another home game on Tuesday and a weekend road tournament in Corpus Christi.

“Tomorrow morning [at practice] we’ll do our pitchers and catchers. We like to bring them in and give them a little bit of individual work. And then we’ll probably do some weight training, do a little flush workout and maybe a little bit of film,” Stoughton said. “Then we’ll definitely focus a little bit on Monday on bunt defense. We want to give them a little bit of rest and make sure we don’t overdo it because we do have another tournament coming up this week. We have another full slate with a game on Tuesday and then six games in Corpus before we start district.”

San Marcos returns to the diamond on Feb. 27 against Hutto at the Rattler Athletic Complex.

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