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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
March 7, 2001
Eagles snap
slump, rout
Shorthorns
PECOS, March 7, 2001 - First-year teams are still showing up across West
Texas in girls softball, and for the Pecos Eagles, one of them provided some
needed relief from the team's two-week hitting slump on Tuesday.
The Eagles, who racked up 26 runs against Crane last month in that team's
first-ever varsity softball game, piled up the runs again Tuesday afternoon
in Marfa, snapping a five-game losing streak wit a 36-3 victory over the
first-year Shorthorns squad.
"We took our JV players and played them too," said Eagles' assistant coach
Becky Wein. "We played the first three innings with the varsity, and then
the JV girls went in."
Wein said the teams went past the normal 15-run rule in softball after
four innings. "We didn't go with the run rule because we wanted to let all
the girls play. We don't have that many JV games scheduled, so we wanted
to try and get all of them in."
Wein said Ashley Salcido had a shot off the fence for the second straight
game. "She had a couple of really good hits and Rebecca (Wein) hit doubles
every time she got up to bat."
Wein said pitcher Alexa Marquez also had a good day at the plate against
Crane, while pitching the first three innings for the Eagles. Stephanie Herrera
came on and finished things off on the mound.
Marfa is one of the few Class A teams in the area with a softball program,
and Wein said, "They had a first-year pitcher who was a lot slower than what
we had seen at the tournament, and our girls were really hitting the ball
yesterday.
"We've been playing good defense, but we just haven't been able to hit
the ball so far. That's been our weakness," she added.
The win improved the Eagles' season record to 3-8 going into their final
two pre-district games, this Saturday at Fort Stockton. The Eagles will face
the host Prowlers at 1 p.m. and will then take on the Sonora Broncos. District
2-4A play begins on March 16 at home against Clint.
Eagles' defense flies the coop in 13-3 loss to Permian
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, March 7, 2001 - Two years ago, the Pecos Eagles' error-filled pre-district
schedule bottomed out against Colorado City in the consolation quarterfinals
of the West Texas March Classic.
This year, the West Texas March Classic is looming on Thursday for Pecos,
and coach Bubba Williams wants to avoid seeing his team back in the consolation
quarterfinals against Colorado City. But that will take a major turnaround
in the Eagles' fielding following Tuesday's 13-3 loss to the Odessa Permian
Panthers.
Pecos turned things around after their awful defensive start in 1999 to
reach the Region I-4A semifinals, and will try to overcome the same problem
this year. They committed five errors on Tuesday in a six-run second inning
by Permian, and missed fly balls and cutoff throws in the other innings while
allowing the Panthers to score an easy win in just over 90 minutes.
The loss also had Williams warning his players they needed to improve
their efforts on Thursday, when the Eagles face Abilene Wylie in their tournament
opener at Midland's Christensen Stadium, starting at 2 p.m.
"Richard (Rodriguez) didn't do a bad job pitching we just didn't play
good defense," Williams said. "We didn't get the clutch hits when we needed
to, and then we came back and made errors when they hit the ball."
Rodriguez was making his debut on the mound for Pecos and lasted only
1 2/3 innings, leaving after his own throwing error allowed Permian to score
their final run of the inning. Logan Parker did have an RBI double and Adriel
Herrera an RBI single in the inning, but they came following the first three
Eagle errors and two walks by Rodriguez had already broken a 1-1 tie.
Parker had singled home the game's first run in the opening inning, after
Justin Whitaker doubled, while Rodriguez doubled off Josh Snepp to start
the bottom of the first and scored on a Mason Abila sacrifice fly.
Capi Magana, who had problems on the infield in the second inning, relieved
Rodriguez and got the final out of the second inning and held Permian scoreless
in the third, while Pecos pushed across two more runs to make it 7-3. But
an error by Rodriguez, now at shortstop, and a lost fly ball by Alex Garcia
t hat turned into a double kicked off a five-run inning in the fourth for
Permian.
The Panthers did touch Magana for three real hits after that to get their
runs, before Sebero Jaquez snared a Cody Zimmerman liner and turned it into
an inning-ending double play. The Eagles then turned a regular shortstop-second-first
double play in the fifth inning, but it came after Permian greeted sophomore
Matthew Levario with three straight singles, and Whitaker was able to score
Permian's 13th run on the double play, which allowed the Panthers
to end the game in the fifth under the 10-run rule.
Pecos got one tainted run in the third when Rodriguez scored after an
infield single, when Mason Abila singled to right and Gabe Ontiveros' throw
home bounced past catcher Ben Gattell. Angel Villalobos then doubled down
the line in left to score Abila, but Snepp got Magana and Levario for the
final two outs to kill the rally.
"I know we're a better team than that," Williams said. "We seem to make
one mistake right now and another one follows. But out pitchers can't afford
to get frustrated out there."
The Eagles go into the West Texas March Classic with a 2-3 record, and
will play their second game at 9 a.m. on Friday. A win over Wylie would put
Pecos up against either Alpine or Seminole at Christensen Stadium, while
a loss would leave the Eagles facing a consolation quarterfinal match-up
either against Colorado City or Monahans.
Youth soccer
clinic is set
PECOS, March 7, 2001 - The Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation
Department will be holding a youth soccer clinic on Thursday, prior to the
start of the spring soccer league season.
The clinic is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, in the Pecos High School
old gym.
Registration for the spring soccer season continues through Friday, March
16, and the recreation department is also seeking anyone interested in either
coaching or officiating during the upcoming spring soccer season. For further
information on the clinic or on the spring soccer program, call the RCCRD
office at the old PHS gym, 447-9776.
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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