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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Sports

Monday, May 8, 2000

Eagles fly over Bears in playoff sweep

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, May 8, 2000 -- The Pecos Eagles made the most of their chances, and got contributions from most of their players in scoring a home field sweep of the El Paso Bowie Bears on Friday in the bi-district round of the Class 4A playoffs.

Pecos defeated Bowie in the opener, 7-2, behind the four-hit pitching of Josh Casillas, then used a pair of five-run rallies in the fourth and sixth innings to come back from a 6-2 deficit and break a 7-7 tie and defeat Bowie, 12-7, which allowed them to avoid a Saturday trip to El Paso for a deciding game of the series.

Instead, the Eagles will now face District 1-4A champion Pampa in the area round of the Class 4A playoffs starting on Friday at Lubbock Christian University. Game 1 will begin at 7 p.m., with the second and, if needed, third games set for 12 noon and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at LCU.

The Eagles, who struggled to hit home runs this season after getting over 30 last year, collected three on Friday, all on two-strike counts. Mason Abila and Ricky Herrera both hit their first homers of the season, Abila's a three-run shot off Albert Torres in the sixth inning of Game 1 that helped seal the victory, and Herrera's a three-run homer in Game 2 that gave Pecos a 7-6 lead.

"It was a team effort tonight," said Eagles' coach Bubba Williams. "Somebody's got to pick it up, and tonight, somebody did.

"It's the best team effort we've had in quite a while," Williams added.

Casillas had the other homer, a solo shot in the first inning of Game 2 off Braulio Guzman that tied the game at 2-2, after Bowie had grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning off Capi Magana.

The sophomore was seeking his seventh win of the season, but was touched for 10 hits and six runs in four innings by the Bears. He left trailing by four, before Barney Rodriguez' two-run double and Herrera's home run gave Magana a chance for a victory.

Richard Rodriguez came on in the fifth and survived a lead-off hit by Torres, but in the sixth he hit leadoff batter Carlos Barron with an 0-2 pitch, walked Torres with one out and then saw Guzman tie the game with a double off the fence in left field. Rodriguez then hit his second batter of the inning, John Saldana, to load the bases, but then came back to get Mike Tovar and Jorge Gonzales on pop ups to end the threat.

Rodriguez then started Pecos' five-run sixth by doubling off a 3-2 pitch to left-center field. Joey Garcia then walked and after a sacrifice bunt by Luis Salgado, Herrera was intentionally walked to load the bases.

That brought up Alex Garcia, who also worked the count to 3-2 before singling by a drawn in infield to right, scoring two runs for a 9-7 Pecos lead. Kevin Bates then laid down a squeeze bunt to score Herrera and was safe when Tovar dropped the throw from Guzman, and after Abila struck out Casillas ripped a double to right-center, scoring Garcia and Bates with the final runs of the night.

Bowie ended up stranding 12 runners on base in the game while the Eagles just left two men on while collecting their 12 runs. "Capi got hit hard. He threw the ball hard, but he's got to spot the ball better," Williams said. "Richard threw hard and did a good job getting out of trouble, but he's just got to develop a little better curve ball."

"The kids could have given up down 6-2 and just said we'll go to El Paso and play the third game but they didn't. Our No. 8 and 9 hitters, Barney comes through with a double with the bases loaded and Ricky hits a home run, that was big," Williams said.

Casillas didn't have as many strikeouts in Game 1 on Friday as in his first two games back from arm problems, against El Paso Mountain View and Canutillo. But despite a couple of wild pitches and three hit batters, he didn't have as much problems with his control overall as he did in those games, walking just two while striking out seven.

The only hitter Casillas had major problems with was leadoff man Carlos Moreno. He was 3-for-4 on the evening and drove in both runs with a two-out single to right field in the second inning and a leadoff home run in the fifth. The first hit tied the game at 1-1, but the Eagles got out of trouble when Jose Briones was caught between second and third base and tagged out in a rundown, to end the inning. Moreno's homer, meanwhile, came after Pecos had scored three times in the fourth inning to grab a 4-1 lead off Bowie's

The Eagles got their first run in the first inning off a double-steal of second and home by Bates and Daniel Terrazas, but lost Bates for three innings when he slipped on home plate and aggravated the ankle injury he suffered on March 31. He came back in the final three innings and in the sixth, was able to beat a throw to first base by Guzman, who bobbled his two-out grounder to third, keeping the inning alive for Abila, who homered to widen a 4-2 lead to 7-2.

Pecos' three-run fourth inning off Torres began with a bloop single to center by Richard Rodriguez and an RBI double to left-center field by Orlando Lara. One out later Magana singled down the line in left to score Lara, and then with two away Torres welcomed Bates back into the game by hitting him with a pitch, then saw Abila bloop an RBI single over Guzman's head behind third base.

After Moreno's homer Casillas alternated pop-up outs with hit batters, plunking Guzman and Saldana. He then went 3-0 on Barron, who was then intentionally walked, but came back to get catcher Frank Orduno on a foul out to Abila behind home plate.

The losses ended Bowie's season at 11-15, while Pecos improved its record to 17-6 going into this Friday's playoff match-up against Pampa. The Harvesters won their second straight District 3-4A title this season and will be trying to repeat their results of a year ago, when they swept Clint, 12-1 and 12-8 in the area round of the Class 4A playoffs. Pecos swept Plainview last season, 10-4 and 3-1 in the area round of the playoffs.

Ropers hold weekend competition at arena

PECOS, May 8, 2000 -- An ASRC steer roping competition was held Saturday and Sunday at the West of the Pecos Rodeo Arena, while preparations continue for the 2000 West of the Pecos Rodeo, scheduled for the first week of July.

Turnout was lower than normal this weekend, reportedly due to other regional roping competitions, but `A,' `B' and `C' roping events were held both days at the Buck Jackson Rodeo Arena.

Casey Pearson won the `A' roping both days, going 62.40 seconds on three steers Saturday and 34.84 on two Sunday morning. In the `B' roping Tommy Wolfer won Saturday with a 35.27 time on two steers and John Escobedo was first on Sunday, with a 29.15 time on two.

The `C' roping was won by Tommy Zant on Saturday, with a 42.71 time on two steers.

This years West of the Pecos Rodeo has been scheduled for Wednesday, July 5, through Saturday, July 8 at the Buck Jackson Rodeo Arena. Slack competition will be held on July 3 and 4, with a special slack performance and bull riding competition set for the night of July 4 at the rodeo arena.



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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
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