Lady Stangs prepare for top district squad
MARBLE FALLS — In theory, the easy part of the first round of District 25-4A play is over for the Marble Falls High School softball team.
The Lady Mustangs (5-18, 1-2 in District 25-4A) now must take aim at the top two squads in the league, beginning with today’s road game at Lampasas (12-3, 3-0 in district).
“Lampasas is tougher than nails,” Lady Mustang head coach David Orsag said.
The Lady Badgers are the defending district champions. But if there was one team that bothered Lampasas, it was Marble Falls.
Lampasas won both games last year by identical 3-2 scores. The first contest was decided in extra innings. The Lady Mustangs had leads in both matchups.
“We have laid a tradition,” Orsag said. “We have always gotten after Lampasas. (My players) have a challenge.”
He said the Lady Badgers are a lot like Dripping Springs — they feature solid pitching with few defensive errors and timely hitting.
Taylor Holloman (5-0) is the team’s top pitcher followed by Kady Crow (1-2).
Holloman, a lefty, has an ERA of 0.28 with 34 strikeouts and two walks. She has given up 11 hits and one earned run while facing 84 batters.
As a team, Lampasas has a batting average of .339.
Hadley Brown has recorded two home runs and two triples with a batting average of .278 in 27 plate appearances.
Tealey Farquhar has an average of .346.
No one has to tell him what kind of team Lampasas has, Orsag said.
“You’re going to have to play your best ball game to have a chance,” he said. “They’ve been run-ruling everybody in district. They don’t make errors. They have pitching, and they have hitting.”
So his concern is emphasizing to his team the importance of fundamentals – good pitching that works the corners, no errors and timely hitting where players string together several hits in the same inning.
“Everything I’ve been saying we have to do,” he said. “We have to play a perfect game. But that’s against anybody. If we don’t play well, we’ll be in trouble.”
By contrast, Marble Falls is experiencing growing pains.
Freshmen Hailey Wooten, Abby Henry and Alicia Macias and sophomore Tori Hurst have been learning the speed of the varsity game.
Junior Payton Peril had not pitched for Marble Falls until this season. Junior Shannon Bendas did not join the team until mid-February due to basketball commitments.
Junior Amanda Noblin has not played because of an injury.
Still, Orsag said his team has shown flashes of how good it can be. Take the 13-1 win against Killeen High Friday — a game that was finished in five innings.
That contest demonstrated the good pitching, good fielding and smart batting he wanted.
Marble Falls scored its first run in the first inning when Wooten took a big lead off first base, daring the catcher to try to pick her off at first. The result was a bad throw where the ball rolled to the fence, allowing the freshman to score on the throwing error.
“With Wooten, it didn’t take too long in practice to figure out she could play,” Orsag said.
Junior Mackinzee Mayfield has been coming through for her team at the plate, he said. She earned 4 RBIs against Killeen.
“Right now Mackinzee is hot,” the coach said. “She’s hitting the ball hard.”
One plus for the Lady Mustangs might be Hutto’s 4-2 win against Pflugerville Hendrickson.
But that all comes back to how Marble Falls plays this week. The Lady Mustangs will meet the Lady Hawks 7 p.m. Thursday at Scearce Softball Field, 2101 Mustang Drive.
“If we beat Hendrickson,” he said. “Hendrickson is 1-2 just like we are.”