San Marcos drops tough game against Cibolo Steele

It was a rough night for San Marcos as the Lady Rattlers fell to the Cibolo Steele Knights in a 9-0 defeat.

An aspect that didn’t help head coach Cathy Stroughton’s squad was the small errors that came at the wrong time.

“We just made some untimely mental mistakes,” Stroughton said. “We had some defensive mistakes that extended innings and mental mistakes not classified as errors but also helped extend the game as well. We opened the door and they (Steele) were aggressive.”

There was a different aspect for the Lady Rattlers coming to their showdown with the Knights that was noticeable compared to the district opener last week.

“We had such an emotional game coming off the Schertz-Clemens matchup last Tuesday,” Stroughton said. “Coming into tonight and being down early in the first inning, we just started playing defensively instead of being aggressive … That’s what we talked about to the team after the game.”

Combined with a tough night at the plate where San Marcos managed just five hits, the game is one the Lady Rattlers definitely want to flush out with a very competitive district schedule yet to come.

“It was really a combination of things,” Stroughton said. “Hopefully we got that out of our system. Steele is a good team and our district is so wide open right now that you have to show up every night to play. Everyone is evenly matched and everybody has their own set of strengths but we didn’t play to our strengths tonight.”

One of the things the Lady Rattlers will focus on during the spring break is quite simple – rest.

Playing 13 games in a span of two weeks, including playing a tournament in Corpus Christi, San Marcos is due for a good break to help refocus.

“For us, we are going to get a good set of practices this week and give the team some rest to help recover,” Stroughton said. “The girls are tired due to grinding so hard due to tournament play while being in so many games … Right now we just need some rest and get in a couple of good practices. I think that is going to help us out a lot.”

Not only will this be a good mental break for the Lady Rattlers, but also a great time for some of the players to heal up from their injuries.

“It was something we desperately needed,’ Stroughton said. “I’m really proud of the girls because what doesn’t show up in the box score is how many of them are playing through pain right now. We have five to six players we are dealing with injuries that could potentially keep someone out of a lineup. They know they need to gut it out and play, but they need a break. It’s hard to watch them play through the pain even though they don’t show it… This will be a good back end of the spring break for us to take some time off and the girls to spend time with their families.”

San Marcos will return to play next Tuesday as they will go on the road against Converse Judson.