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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, February 22, 2000
Bears face Indians in playoffs
PECOS, Feb. 22, 2000 -- Outside of a couple of ranch houses around Wild
Rose Pass, there really is no midway point for the Balmorhea Bears and
Fort Davis Indians to stage a basketball game. So the two teams will be
heading north to Pecos tonight to face each other in the bi-district round
of the Class A boys basketball playoffs, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Balmorhea comes in having won a playoff to claim the District 1-A title
last week, while Fort Davis lost their playoff game to Marfa for the District
2-A crown. Overall for the season, the Bears are 14-8 after their 61-37
win in Van Horn a week ago over Dell City, while the Indians stand at 19-6,
following their 45-30 loss on Feb. 14 to the Shorthorns.
Balmorhea got both their running game and their outside shooting going
after a slow start in last week's playoff against Dell City, allowing them
to offset the Cougars' size advantage inside. Guard Manny Mendoza led the
Bears with 19 points, while post Isaiah Rodriguez added 12, as Balmorhea
broke the game open by outscoring Dell City 31-16 in the middle two periods.
Fort Davis did split their games against Marfa in regular season play,
before losing the one-game playoff to the Shorthorns. In their 51-45 win
last month, Orly Sanchez had 19 points to top the Indians, while Derrick
Rhineberg and Phillip Crude also were in double figures with 11 and 10
points.
Eagle girls rally to beat Loboes, 10-7
PECOS, Feb. 22, 2000 -- The Pecos Eagles' softball team took another step
towards becoming a factor in Class 4A softball in West Texas on Friday,
with a victory over a Class 3A team they struggled against in their first
two years of varsity competition.
The Eagles went into Monahans and came out with a 10-7 victory over
the Loboes, rallying from a 6-2 deficit with seven runs in the fifth inning.
Jessica Rodriguez' bases-loaded triple highlighted the fifth inning
rally, as it turned a 6-4 Loboes' lead into a 7-6 Eagles' advantage. It
was part of a 5-for-5 day for Rodriguez, Eagles' coach Tammy Walls said.
While the Eagles won the District 2-4A softball title last season, they
had yet to beat an established team from the Permian Basin until Friday.
Monahans' softball program had a three-year head start on Pecos, and had
beaten the Eagles each of the past two years.
"Playing them close was not going to do it. We were going to have to
beat them this time," said Walls. "The first year we played them our kids
were in shock at how good they were. Last year was a lot closer, and I
told the seniors as they got off the bus this was their last chance to
beat them.
"I thought we showed a lot of character coming back after getting down,"
Walls said. "Everybody hit the ball. I don't know of anybody who did not
contribute.
Pecos held 1-0 and 2-1 leads after the first and third innings, when
the Loboes scored five times in the fourth against pitcher Alexa Marquez.
The Eagles then responded with their seven-run fifth, and after the Loboes
cut the gap to 9-7 in the bottom of the inning, Marquez shut out the Loboes
in the final two innings. Meanwhile, Pecos scored an insurance run on a
wild pitch in the top of the seventh inning.
"Alexa did a really good job. She had her pitches down and was controlling
the plate. She made them pop up a bunch," Walls said.
Rodriguez' 5-for-5 also included two doubles to go along with the fifth
inning triple, though she was thrown out at home plate trying for an inside-the-park
grand slam. "That was my fault, but with the bases loaded, I wanted her
to score," Walls said.
Senior Katrina Quiroz was 3-for-4 with two singles and a double, and
Pecos' other senior starter, Valerie Gonzales went 2-for-4 with a triple.
Catcher Rebecca Wein also was 2-for-4 with a triple and Maricela Arenivas
had the other triple on the day for Pecos, which improved to 2-0 on the
season.
Monahans, which lost their season opener last Tuesday at Big Spring,
fell to 0-2 with the loss.
The Eagles' next game will be in the Tall City Softball Tournament at
Midland on Friday, Pecos drew a first round bye and will face either Fort
Stockton or the Midland Lee junior varsity in their 10:30 a.m. opener.
PHS rally set for swim team tonight
PECOS, Feb. 22, 2000 -- Pecos High School will be holding a pep rally tonight
for the Pecos Eagles' swimming team, which will be sending nine swimmers
to the Class 4A State Finals in Austin this weekend.
The pep rally will begin at 7 p.m. in the old Pecos High School gym,
and is open to the public.
This is the first year schools from Class 4A and below have had their
own regional and state meets. Pecos' boys had won eight of the previous
10 district titles, but had never gotten a swimmer past the Class 5A schools
at regional. This year, the Eagles ran away with the Region I-4A title
and qualified swimmers Kevin Bates, Tye Edwards, Randall Reynolds, Patrick
McChesney, Jason Lopez, Grant Holland, Cortney Freeman and Scott Pounds
to Austin.
On the girls' side, JoAnn Wein qualified for state by winning the 200
and 500 yard freestyle races at regionals.
The preliminaries will begin at 10:30
NASCAR eye changes after `boring' Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 22, 2000 (AP) - The Great American Race was more
like The Great American Snooze for all but a few, crucial laps at the end.
After hearing complaints from drivers and enduring a relatively dull
Daytona 500, NASCAR officials decided Monday that some tinkering with their
rules might be in order.
NASCAR will take cars back to the wind tunnel for testing, trying to
even out the edge the Fords clearly gained in the offseason. A complete
redesign of the Chevrolets, combined with a new set of shock and spring
rules, produced just four on-track lead changes Sunday.
Just as telling - Ford Tauruses swept the top five spots, with Dale
Jarrett driving the best Ford of all.
Even Jarrett, still beaming from his third win in the stock-car racing's
biggest event, saw the problem NASCAR was facing.
"From a driver's standpoint, it's a lot easier racing because we're
not threewide, side-by-side all the time," Jarrett said. "But we understand
that these fans pay to see that kind of racing. We've got this sport to
the highest level right now, and we don't need to take away from that."
To show just how serious they are, NASCAR officials will even test Jarrett's
winning car, temporarily pulling it from its display at Daytona USA, where
the vehicle traditionally goes on display for a year.
It's a car that has known little but success, winning at Talladega in
1998, at Daytona last July and finishing second in both Talladega races
last year.
"I know you can build more cars," said Todd Parrott, Jarrett's crew
chief. "But it's hard to come up with race cars that drive like that one
does."
Still, it seems a good bet that Jarrett's team will adjust.
He has been the most consistent and dominating driver for exactly a
year now. Since crashing early in the 1999 Daytona 500, Jarrett has finished
outside the top 10 in just three races. He's the defending Winston Cup
champion, but any thoughts of complacency seem far removed.
"Having won the championship, you don't want to settle for anything
less," Jarrett said. "I understand how Dale Earnhardt and those other guys
have won all those championships. Because once you get it, that's all you
want."
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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