Marble Falls baseball comes back swinging in Game 2 win against Cedar Park
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
MARBLE FALLS — The Marble Falls High School baseball team earned the win it needed, according to head coach J.T. Blair, in a 4-1 victory against Cedar Park on March 13.
The Mustangs entered the second of a three-game series with a heart-wrenching 4-1 loss a night earlier.
“We played error-free baseball tonight,” Blair said. “That’s been the key to our team: good pitching, solid defense and hitting.”
Simply put, he said, the Mustangs didn’t do that enough in the series opener March 12.
So when the Timberwolves took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning in Game 2, Blair was curious to see how his team would respond.
The Mustangs’ response was immediate — and positive. After senior Joey Blackledge reached on a fielder’s choice, senior Stacy Heinatz hit an one-run stand-up double that rolled into the left-field corner. Blackledge ran home all the way from first.
“It was huge,” Blair said. “We didn’t swing the bat well (in Game 1). One of our captains got the big hit (in Game 2.) Stacy rose to the occasion.”
Then, Marble Falls created its own luck in the sixth. Blackledge singled and stole second then went home when junior Domenic Patterson hit a one-run double.
“(Patterson) is a good player,” Blair said. “In big situations, he rises to the occasion. That’s what you want out of the middle of the hitting lineup. It was a big hit for us, especially after last night. We felt like we needed to win.”
Senior Cole Ridgely brought Patterson home on a one-run single, went to second when the ball was thrown home, stole third and finally scored on a pass ball.
“One of the things I wanted to do when I got this job,” said Blair, who is in his first year as the Mustangs coach, “was I said we were going to run. Mustang baseball is the kind of baseball that’s a high-tempo offense. We’re going to make things happen.”
ON OFFENSE: Marble Falls – RBIs: Stacy Heinatz 1, Domenic Patterson 1; hits: Carson Bowen 2, Cole Ridgely 2, Joey Blackledge 1, Heinatz 1, Patterson 1; runs scored – Blackledge 2, Patterson 1, Ridgely 1. Cedar Park – RBI: Tanner Dickerson 1
ON DEFENSE: Winning pitcher – Cole Ridgely (2-1) 1 earned run off 4 hits, 1 walk, 12 strikeouts in 7 innings; losing pitcher – Jake Pokorney 3 earned runs off 7 hits, 1 strikeout and 1 hit by pitch in 5 innings
QUOTABLE: “This is a big confidence booster for us. We know we’re a good team. Before this game, we weren’t sure if we could compete with the big boys. But we can, and we beat them tonight,” Marble Falls coach J.T. Blair said.
RECORDS: Marble Falls is 9-3 overall and 1-1 in District 25-4A; Cedar Park is 2-3 in district.
UP NEXT: Marble Falls at Cedar Park, 2150 Cypress Creek Road in Cedar Park, 7 p.m. March 14
jfierro@thepicayune.com