Rattlers defeat Unicorns on Senior Night

Head Coach Cathy Stoughton discusses the game plan during the Rattlers at-bat against the New Braunfels Unicorns.
Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo

The Rattlers found their groove at the plate Friday night.

San Marcos bested New Braunfels 7-6 after jumping out to a fiverun lead by way of a six-run second inning. The Unicorns were able to chip away at the lead throughout the game, but the San Marcos’ early offensive explosion sealed the win for the Rattlers in the end.

“I thought [the way we started offensively] was amazing. Usually for us, we have a hard time playing from behind. So when Cruz came up and hit that shot in the first inning — it was a monster. She is a heck of a ball player. I was wondering how we were going to react and respond. The way we came out, we’ve been approaching it all week, keeping our energy level up. We’ve been working on the little things” head coach Cathy Stoughton said. “Tonight we tried to run a squeeze, things like that and they executed everything. We got the bunt down, we hit the ball when we needed to. We were laying off pitches early. I think later on we still had nine or ten hits tonight, but I think what happened was once we got that six run explosion, we got a little more aggressive than we needed to be. We were aggressive yet patient at the same time.

“I think that we relaxed and we still hit the ball, we just weren’t moving runners the way we needed to (the rest of the game). But for us to come back and put up an inning like that, it’s been a while since we’ve had an inning like that. It was great. I know the kids enjoyed it. My favorite part is watching the kids enjoy themselves and be happy and have fun and smile. They stayed in it the whole game, they were screaming. I know a couple of them had lost their voice by the third inning. So we weren’t going to let them outenergize us.”

The Unicorns jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a two-run homer in the first, but San Marcos quickly responded by plating a run in the bottom of the first to cut their lead in half. Sophomore pitcher Adelaida Sierra put up a shutout inning in the second and the Rattlers followed that up with a six-run breakout inning to take a five-run lead.

Senior infielder Ava Serna broke the game wide open after the Rattlers drew two walks with the bases loaded — Serna cleared the bases by smacking a three-run shot to centerfield for a stand-up double to put San Marcos’ lead at 6-2. Fellow senior Jessica DeLeon followed that up by knocking a hit to the centerfield wall to bring in Serna and extend the lead to 7-2. The purple and white got two more runners on in the inning, but the Unicorns stranded both.

“[After] watching her from a couple of batters before, I knew she wasn’t feeling well. And she was not doing the best she could. So once I saw the first pitch, I knew I had to hit it,” Serna said. “And it just happened that she missed it over here in centerfield, and that’s what cleared the bases.”

DeLeon was 'hyped' by Serna's hit.

'I was looking for an inside pitch and that’s exactly what she threw me. So I just drove it up the middle [and drove Serna in],” DeLeon added.

New Braunfels responded at the plate to start the third, bringing in two runs on an RBIdouble after an error in the infield. Sierra was able to hold the damage at two though, keeping San Marcos up by three. The Unicorns got another run across in the top of the fourth, but once again the Rattlers kept the damage minimal.

Sierra held New Braunfels scoreless in the fifth, meaning the Rattlers needed just six more outs to secure the win with a 7-5 lead. San Marcos once again held strong defensively in the sixth to hold the two-run lead heading into the final inning. The Unicorns got their first two batters on base to start the inning, and then hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to just one. Despite New Braunfels taking the game to the wire, Sierra forced a ground out to end the game and secure the 7-6 win for the Rattlers.

“We just have to take care of our own destiny. Tonight was a big win for us. That put us in a situation where now we’ve earned splits with a couple of the teams that we could tie, but we’ve been swept by a couple of teams that we could tie,” Stoughton said. “So we’ve been watching GameChanger, and we just got to focus on East Central and take care of what we can control. And hopefully everything falls into place and everything that we need to happen happens for us.”

San Marcos returns to the field next Tuesday against East Central at 7 p.m.

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