Rattlers upset No. 10 ranked East Central

The Rattlers broke through in district Tuesday night.

San Marcos secured their first district win of the season and snapped a four-game district losing streak in a 4-1 win over district-leading East Central. The Rattlers earned their first lead of the game in the third before driving in three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take control behind another stellar performance in the circle from sophomore Addy Sierra.

“This is a big win for us. East Central’s a really, really good team. They’re ranked right now. They’re very well coached. They’ve got good athletes, good pitching, good hitters, and Addy did a good job of coming in and shutting them down,” head coach Cathy Stoughton said. “We’ve just kind of been snake bit — ironically enough — we just hadn’t had a lot of things going our way. Addy’s coming back from an injury. She sprained her ankle against Judson, and to see her come into the game tonight [and] dominate like she did in the circle was just amazing. That’s the kind of presence that she has. She makes us a better ball club.”

Sierra started off the game forcing the Hornets to go down in order while racking up two strikeouts. The Rattlers weren’t able to get anything going at the plate in their first two at-bats, but Sierra stranded a runner in the second while adding another strikeout to keep the game even. The sophomore continued her dominance in the circle by forcing East Central to go down in order again in the third while adding another strikeout.

That’s when San Marcos’ offense got going. After getting a runner in scoring position early in the inning, senior Ava Serna smacked a double to the left-center gap to give the Rattlers their first lead of the game at 1-0. San Marcos wasn’t able to get anything else going at the plate in the third, but secured an early advantage.

“The things that we improved on tonight was definitely our offense. [It’s] starting to get going, and we always talk about wanting to get hot at the right time. I think this was really good for us because even though we had a tough loss against New Braunfels on Friday,” Stoughton said. “We did start hitting the ball and that’s something that’s been kind of an Achilles heel for us in the last few weeks. So tonight to see us put pressure on the defense and to get timely hits and execute and be smart on the bases was something that we really needed.”

Sierra took down the Hornets in order once again in the fourth, this time adding two more strikeouts to her K total. The Rattlers put a ton of pressure on the Hornets’ defense in the bottom of the inning by loading the bases, but East Central managed to get out of the jam with a double out and stranded three runners.

The Hornets were able to get two runners on base in the fifth, but Sierra worked out of the jam with two strikeouts in the inning to keep East Central scoreless. San Marcos may have left three runs on the board in the fourth, but they got all of them back in the fifth. The Rattlers got two on early in the inning, and senior catcher Jessica De-Leon cleared the bases with an RBI-triple to extend their lead to 3-0. Sierra stepped to the plate next and helped herself in the circle to drive in an RBI-double of her own to extend the lead to 4-0. The Hornets stranded two runners on base to get out of the inning.

East Central was finally able to get on the board in the sixth with an RBI-triple to cut their deficit to three, but Sierra stranded the runner at third to halt the scoring and cut the Lady Hornets’ chances left at the plate to one inning. East Central once again made some noise offensively in the inning by getting runners on first and third, but Sierra stranded both while adding another strikeout to secure the 4-1 district win.

“[I think] not really caring about what other team’s records are or even ours (helped us tonight). It’s just [about] coming out and competing and having a dog mentality. I couldn’t have done it without these guys, I love them,” Sierra said. “I was just thinking about competing in the circle. I have no fear — like I said — [I’m] just going out there being a dog and playing for my team and community. [We were] being in the present tonight and just having fun. We love this game, we just have to go out there and play the game we love. It’s really just to stop overthinking it all, that’s really it.”

The Lady Rattlers return to the ball field Mar. 28 at San Marcos High School at 7 p.m.

“Well, we’re ready to get another shot at Clemens. It was a tight ball game when we played them over there. Getting to play at home, I think one of the things for us in the first round of district [was] we spent more time on the road than at our field,” Stoughton said. “So it definitely makes a difference for us having the back end of district where we’re actually getting to play more games at home and I think that makes a huge difference for us. It’s definitely within our comfort zone.”

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