Marble Falls baseball starts district with loss to Cedar Park

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

MARBLE FALLS — The Marble Falls High School baseball team lost 6-0 to Cedar Park on March 11 to begin District 25-4A play.

The Timberwolves (10-5 overall, 3-0 district) took advantage of 10 free bases during the seven-inning affair and left eight batters on base. They had six hits.

“The lead-off walks disappointed me,” Mustangs head coach J.T. Blair said. “You can’t overcome that or the free bases. “That’s what disappointed me the most.”

Cedar Park junior pitcher Chris Paddack was dominant on the mound. He threw all seven innings and gave up one hit in the final inning and had four walks and eight strikeouts.

“He was better (March 11) than he was last week,” Blair said. “He got ahead early. He has the ability to rear back and throw the ball by us when he wanted to.”

This time last year, the Mustangs (4-5-3 overall, 0-1 district) shocked Cedar Park by winning two of the three games en route to finishing as the district runners-up. Now Blair said his players have to adjust the way they approach games this year.

“The role has changed for us,” he said. “We’ve got to get used to being the hunted instead of the hunters. We had a great year last year. It’s like being a target. That’s a good spot to be in.”

Marble Falls travels to play at Cedar Park, 2150 Cypress Creek Road, 7 p.m. March 13.

Blair said the race for the district crown will be close because of the parity in the district. The way the district season unfolds, with schools playing each other twice in the same week, also is a challenge. So it’s important his team begins to perform well enough to earn one of the four postseason berths.

“If you catch somebody hot now, that can be tough on you,” he said. “It’s not like we catch them three weeks later. That can be tough on you. We have to get hot, too. We have to start peaking, too.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com