San Marcos heats up, takes down Del Valle, 7-1

The San Marcos baseball team has made it a habit of video bombing its head coach during his postgame interviews. The freedom and creativity has only expressed itself after wins. 

After a third win in a row on Friday against Austin High, the team carried players as they walked behind head coach Bryan Webb celebrating the win. After a 7-1 win over Del Valle on Tuesday, they added some extra moves to the celebration, carrying their teammate who imitated a Olympic swimmer while senior center fielder Kannon Webb, threw an imaginary fishing rod to catch his teammate. 

It’s all fun and games for the team as long they keep winning. Business comes first. 

“It’s been fun. A lot of enthusiasm, but you’ve also got to keep that kind of focus and mentality because every game is a playoff game from here on out. Every game is just as important as the last and we want to make this playoff push,” Kannon Webb said. “When you’re around Rattler Baseball, there’s always some enthusiasm, some fun. But just gotta stay focused, so it’s a little mixture of both.”

San Marcos (18-7-2, 4-5 district) had enthusiasm from start to finish, opening the game with a four-run inning. Most of the damage in the first inning was caused by Del Valle starting pitcher Chris Vasquez, who dealt three walks and four errors in just 0.2 innings of work. The Rattlers took advantage early and never waivered. Pinch hitter Major Pelien filled his role perfectly by ripping a line shot to center, bringing in two runs. 

The purple and white took an inning off offensively but in the middle three, they scored a run in each of them. Kannon Webb doubled on a deep ball to center that brought in sophomore outfielder Ryan Hix making it 5-0 in the bottom of the third. The sophomore, who has deemed himself as having the best mullet in the game, also had the best swing in the game on Tuesday night and was one hit away from batting the cycle.

“One hit away, man. If Fabian (Villegas) got on, I was taking daddy hacks and daddy hacks only,” Hix said about what would have been his final plate appearance. “I mean, the wind was blowing in but I don’t really care, I was going for it. If I got out, I got out. I mean, I still had a pretty successful night and I’ll be satisfied with it.”

Before Hix got the chance, Del Valle recorded three of its total eight hits in the final three innings but none of them resulted in any Cardinals touching home giving San Marcos the 7-1 win and it’s fourth consecutive victory.

The Rattlers are starting to find success at the plate. Bryan Webb says it isn’t so much about the hits but when they are coming which is making the team thrive offensively.

“Good plate approaches. We’ve talked about getting off to a good start, you know, jumping on them early and fortunate enough, we were tonight,” Bryan Webb said.  “Their No. 1 pitcher was on a mound and we’ve seen him before and we had a pretty good scouting report on him. We were able to do what we wanted to do. We were successful in getting some guys, getting some key hits and that’s how we’re supposed to do it.”

Infielder Johnny Pardo and Hix went a combined 7-7 and were responsible for four runs. Webb went 2-4 with two RBIs. Starting pitcher Tito Santos pitched a complete game, striking out six batters, with four hits allowed and one earned run. 

San Marcos’ playoff hopes are still alive but every game is just as Important as the last. Their next challenge is game two against Del Valle again on Friday at 7 p.m. on the road.