Lady Stangs finish third in own tourney
MARBLE FALLS — By all indications, the Marble Falls High School softball team was scheduled to face more talented teams in the gold bracket of their own Barbecue Classic Saturday.
So there’s no shame in finishing third, especially when Marble Falls (5-1) had to come from behind to beat Kerrville Tivy, 6-5, after falling to Friendswood, 9-6. “I’m happy with that,” head coach Tino Salazar said. “I’m happy overall with the tournament because we saw some good teams.”
Marble Falls trailed, 5-2, thanks to a home run by freshman Amanda Thomas, which went 225 feet behind the left wall after a called strike the pitch before.
In the sixth inning, sophomore right fielder Abby Henry led off with a standup double and went to third when the next batter was out at first. Senior center fielder Payton Peril hit an RBI single to right field. Thomas drew a walk, while the next batter flew out to center field.
So with two outs and runners on the corners, senior catcher Mackinzee Mayfield and senior first baseman Allison Bendas walked, scoring Peril. An error brought home the next run to tie the game, 5-5.
In the top of the seventh, Peril had a sliding catch in left-center field for the first out.
“I think at that time that was the spark we needed,” Salazar said.
The next two batters hit ground outs to end the inning.
Henry led off the final inning with a dink just behind third baseman. Senior shortstop Shannon Bendas hit a grounder that was picked up and thrown to first, but the infielder dropped the ball for an error. Peril bunted and confused the infielder, who held the ball too long, allowing all three runners to advance to bases safely. Thomas scored the RBI when the third baseman mishandled the ball.
“It’s good that we put the ball in play,” Salazar said. “They made some errors.”
Pitcher Thomas (3-0) earned the win.
Friendswood scored two runs in the top of the first, but Marble Falls came right back to trim the deficit in half when sophomore third baseman Hailey Wooten went home when Friendswood tried to run down another runner, 2-1.
“We told them there’s a lot of game left,” Salazar said. “It’s hard to get a run in the first.” Friendswood added two more runs in the third, 4-1.
Marble Falls showed some fight in the third. Wooten reached first on a fielder’s choice, went to second; Mayfield walked and scored on an RBI single courtesy of Allison Bendas, 4-2.
By the middle of the fourth inning, Lady Mustang sophomore pitcher Alicia Macias (1-1) took over in the circle with one out and runners on second and third. They scored to give Friendswood a 6-2 lead.
“I thought Alicia came in and did a really good job,” Salazar said.
Senior second baseman Amanda Noblin reached first on an error to start the bottom half of the inning for Marble Falls. Henry singled to left field, then Marble Falls drew three consecutive walks to score three runs, 6-5.
“We put the ball in play and made things happen,” the coach said. “We’re going to need that fight.”
Macias forced Friendswood to go three-up, three-down in the fifth and gave up only one hit in the sixth.
Meanwhile, the Lady Mustangs tied the game in the sixth when Thomas singled to the left-center field gap and went to third on a pass ball. She scored when a teammate flew out to center field.
Friendswood took the lead in the top of the seventh, scoring three earned runs off four hits. Marble Falls could only muster a double in the final inning.
“We needed that,” Salazar said. “We hadn’t played anyone of this caliber. It was good to see.”