Left: Madison Morris eyes the batter while standing on second base. Above: Lampasas head coach Chris Munoz reacts as sophomore Kady Crow safely reaches third base before scoring off an error late in the game against Marble Falls. The Lady Badgers won their fifth consecutive game and improved to 4-0 in District 25-4A Tuesday evening with an 8-1 home win over Marble Falls.

Surprisingly, Lampasas’ head coach considers that a “bad day.”

“We won, yes, but I’m astonished,” Chris Munoz said of his team’s performance. “I know we can play a lot better, and I know they will play better.

“This is a good group of girls, but I guess tonight was just an off night.”

Munoz’s main concern had to do with the team’s performance at the plate, where Lampasas saw a dramatic decrease in production following a pitching change in the second inning.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD AKRIDGE The Lady Badgers came into the evening having outscored their previous four opponents by a combined 47 runs, 50-3.

Against Marble Falls, Lampasas recorded seven hits and added seven runs to its total in the first two innings but produced just one hit and one run over the remainder of the game after substitute pitcher Payton Peril replaced Alicia Macias with one out remaining in the second inning.

“We’re not used to that slowpitching stuff,” Munoz said of Peril’s style. “We are always fast paced, and we have to learn to adapt to that slower pitching. [My players] want the aggressive pitching, and I think they were disappointed when they didn’t get that.

“They want to go and compete against that, and I want to too, but for some reason tonight, we didn’t.”

The Lady Badgers safely reached second base just twice during the last four innings, as 10 of the final 14 batters failed to get on base.

Knowing a potential weakness was exposed by Marble Falls, Munoz plans to learn from the experience and work at improving against slow pitches to avoid falling into similar hitting lulls in future contests.

“We will work on it,” Munoz said. “We’re going to be successful on the slow pitches and on the fast pitches in every game. I know these girls will do it, and I know they want to do it.”

Regardless of who is on the mound, however, Munoz has the same goal every time the Lady Badgers step on the diamond: attack the opposing pitcher early.

So far, his squad has done just that in every district game.

Of its 45 district runs, Lampasas (15-8, 4-0 district) has scored 28 in the first two innings.

“We jumped on [the pitcher] in the first inning again,” Munoz said. “That is something that I’m proud of for these girls. In that first inning, we’re putting some runs up on the board.”

Lampasas pitcher Kady Crow collected her second consecutive district victory by doing the exact opposite.

The sophomore gave up just two hits over the first four innings and held the Lady Mustangs (1-3 district) scoreless until the sixth inning, when Peril hit a single to send home the team’s lone scorer MacKenzie Mayfield. Marble Falls improved over time, though, and finished with six hits.

Offensively, Lampasas junior first baseman Madison Morris went two for three at the plate, hitting for a single, a double and three RBIs. Classmate Kat Strickland also had three RBIs in the win.

Due to the Good Friday holiday, Lampasas’ game at Killeen (0-4 district) was rescheduled from tonight to yesterday.

“I think [the short turnaround] is good,” Munoz said. “These girls are fast paced, and they’ve got that up-tempo, let’s-play-some-games [mentality]. They don’t like to sit out.

“This is a game they are going to think about and say, ‘Let’s go put it to them,’ and I think they will.”

For a complete recap of the Lady Badgers’ game at Killeen, please see Tuesday’s edition.

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The Lady Badgers’ junior varsity team improved to 3-1 in District 25-4A with a 13-9 win over Marble Falls at home.

Five different runners scored two runs apiece in the victory as Cathleen Garczynski went two for three at the plate, and Morgan Mankowski recorded three singles on three at bats.

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The Lady Badger Booster Club will have a fish fry April 13 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the LHS softball field. Cost is $7.