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San Marcos can’t hold onto lead, falls to Bowie, 8-5

San Marcos Baseball
Wednesday, April 13, 2022

With the second half of District 26-6A play underway, teams are fighting for playoff contention with every swing.

San Marcos and Austin Bowie clashed on Tuesday night at Rattler Field. Bowie was coming off of a sweeping defeat by the hands of Lake Travis last week, while the Rattlers did the opposite by sweeping Del Valle and becoming the No. 3 seed in the district standings.

The Bulldogs came away with an 8-5 victory after trailing by as many as four runs throughout the game.

“We left some guys on in the fifth or sixth where you know, it probably should have been a bigger lead than 4-1 or 5-1,” head coach Bryan Webb said. “I wasted some pinch hitters and some bullpen guys to go do that. Tried to put it away right there. We didn’t get it done. There’s not really one thing you can point at but we left some guys out there when we should have gotten it done.”

Junior starting pitcher Tito Santos held Bowie scoreless through five innings of work but his team struggled to give him any run support in that same time span. In the bottom of the fifth, junior infielder Dallas Calderon recorded only the second hit of the game for San Marcos, which put runners in scoring position. Junior outfielder Ryan Hix hit a ball in the infield, which forced a fielder’s choice and brought in the first run of the night. Immediately after that, sophomore shortstop Kutter Gage Webb smacked a shot down the middle that gave the Rattlers a 2-0 lead. That was only half of the damage done as the hosts took a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the sixth inning.

Bryan Webb talked about the status of his team hitting this season and how they’ve been able to generate runs. 

“That’s the kind of team we’ve always been,” Bryan said. “We’re gonna wait till you give us that opportunity to strike. We’re not a dynamic offensive team. We have to kind of pounce on you when you give us that opportunity. We did exactly what we wanted when we got that opportunity to score four tonight in that inning. I just wish we could have got a couple more out there to put them away.”

Bowie (10-2-1, 6-3 district) was able to respond with its first run in the game but San Marcos (13-13-1, 5-4) answered right back, leaving the score at 5-1. But the hosts didn’t take advantage of their lead. The visitors opened the seventh inning with an RBI that moved runners to first and third, allowing their next two batters RBI opportunities, which they added to their stat line and cut San Marcos’ lead to one. Bowie needed just one inning to erase the deficit they faced all game after its fourth run of the frame tied the game at 5-5. 

The eighth inning looked much like the rest of the game — scoreless, with good defense by both sides. Every swing counted. It was a full count with two outs and runners on for Bowie when Brody Miller swung for the fences and hit a 408-foot three-run homer, which awarded the visitors their first lead of the game and killed the hope of the purple and white. 

San Marcos was able to get runners as far as third base in the last inning. Junior outfielder Major Pellien was struck out but the ball looked to be dropped as he ran to first base. Bowie’s catcher thought he caught the pitch and didn’t throw it to first as the umpires called Pellien safe and a run had scored. It was less than a couple of seconds before the call was overturned, rescinding the run and ending San Marcos’ two-game win streak, 8-5.

San Marcos has a chance to right its wrongs in an early Thursday night game at Burger Stadium against the Bulldogs with the first pitch slated for 5 p.m. With the loss, the Rattlers still have to fight for their playoff hopes over the next few games. 

“We control our own destiny,” Webb said about the last stretch of games. We got five games left. I just told them right now that we’ve only got so many left to get into for sure and if not, we gotta try to force a play in. 

“We’re gonna take it one game at a time. We’re gonna deal with it Thursday. We’ll have our Easter and then we’ll worry about (Austin) Akins next week. We’ve got to go back to back days at Burger Stadium, Thursday and Tuesday. It doesn’t get any better for us. We’ll respond, we always do. We’re resilient and our coaching staff will be resilient. We’ll get them ready to go.”

San Marcos Record

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