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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
Eagles seek home win over Lions
PECOS, Apr. 18, 2000 -- After changing the lineup completely prior to last
Friday's victory over the El Paso Mountain View Lobos, the Pecos Eagles
will do a little more lineup shuffling this evening, when they host the
Clint Lions in a 6 p.m. start.
Clint will be looking to clinch the District 2-4A title with a win over
Pecos, while the Eagles will be trying to solidify their hold on second
in the district standings and maintain an outside chance at catching Clint
in the 2-4A standings.
It was a 10-3 victory by Clint over Pecos on April 4 that sent the Eagles
into a 1-2-1 slide that resulted in coach Bubba Williams putting five new
players into the lineup and changing around his entire defense. After a
9-2 loss last Tuesday to Fabens, the new lineup responded with an 11-1
victory over Mountain View.
Fabens came off their win over Pecos and was routed by Clint on Friday,
15-2, to fall a game behind the Eagles in the race for second place in
the district standings. They're a half game in front of Canutillo, whom
the Eagles will face on the road on Thursday.
"We've got to win the two games this week if we want to have a chance
to host a playoff game," said Eagles' coach Bubba Williams, whose team
is 4-2-1 in district compared to the Lions' 7-0 mark.
Jeremy Arnold went 4-for-4 and Freddie Ortiz was 3-for-4 in Clint's
April 3 win over Pecos. Clint scored three runs in the fourth and fifth
innings to break a 3-3 tie against Pifi Montoya, who replaced Josh Casillas
on the mound in the first inning.
Casillas left the game with tendonitis of the elbow, and made his first
start since then on Friday, striking out 10 batters while allowing only
three hits. But now Montoya is gone, and Williams said sophomore Richard
Rodriguez would start on the mound tonight for Pecos.
"I think he'll be all right. He's got a lot of pitches, and I hope he
can keep them off-balance," Williams said. "Clint hits the fastball pretty
well but Richard has a knuckleball and change-up, so we'll see what he
can do."
Rodriguez has started only one game this season, and ran into control
problems against Colorado City, allowing four runs in one inning before
being relieved by Luis Salgado in an eventual 7-6 Pecos win. Rodriguez
took over for Salgado at shortstop in Friday's win over Mountain View,
but Salgado will be back at his normal spot tonight, while Mason Abila
replaces him in left field.
Abila has spent the season at catcher, but missed Friday's game due
to the flu. However, Williams said he would keep Ivan Guebara at that spot
tonight, while moving Abila to left field, where he played last season.
Guebara was 2-for-4 in Friday's game and Williams wants to keep his bat
in the lineup.
"We've just got to start hitting the ball. We're not hitting as well
as we did last year," Williams said. "We hit 31 home runs last year and
we've got three right now."
One other change Williams wasn't sure of yet would be a third base.
Matthew Levario, who made his varsity debut against Mountain View, will
be at band competition today. However, Williams said the other freshman
put into the lineup Friday, Barney Rodriguez, would remain at designated
hitter. Rodriguez was 3-for-4 with 5 RBI against Mountain View.
Larned to be banquet guest speaker
PECOS, Apr. 18, 2000 -- Former Monahans High School head coach and superintendent
Jerry Larned will be the guest speaker on Thursday, May 4, at the annual
Pecos High School All-Sports Banquet.
Athletic director Bubba Williams said the banquet will be held for the
first time in the new Pecos High School gymnasium and will be open to the
public. Tickets will be available at the high school, along with KIUN Radio
and Dan's Music and Video downtown.
All-district athletes for the Eagles from the 1999-2000 school year
will be recognized at the banquet, and the Doc Lunday, Craig Woods, Joe
Shoemaker, Norma Matta and Joe Bob Kelton awards will also be announced
during the banquet.
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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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