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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
April 4, 2001
Eagles' HR stuns Lions' defense
PECOS, April 4, 2001 - A shot over the fence by Pecos' Rebecca Wein acted
like a club over the head to the Clint Lions' defense on Tuesday, as her
three-run home run set the stage for a series of Lions' errors in the fifth
inning that carried the Eagles to a 9-7 road victory.
Wein's homer, the Eagles' first over-the-fence shot of the season, turned
a 2-1 Pecos lead into a 5-1 advantage, and caused Clint's defense to lose
its composure. The Lions made four errors on the next five Eagle batters,
which allowed Pecos to widen their lead to 9-1. But Clint did come back
after that, cutting the lead to two runs and loading the bases with two
outs in the seventh, before Stephanie Herrera struck out Monica Torres
to end the game.
Four walks by Herrera in the final inning helped Clint's comeback attempt,
though coach Tammy Walls said, "A lot of those pitches looked like strikes
to everyone but the umpire. But Stephanie hung in there and got the final
strikeout."
Pecos had taken a 2-0 lead in the third, on a single by Kathy Maldonado,
a three-base throwing error by pitcher Adrienne Coronado on a bunt by Herrera
and a fielder's choice RBI ground out by Wein, with Herrera beating the
throw home from first baseman Gilda Victoriano.
Clint scored once in the bottom of the third before the Eagles came
up with their big inning. Wein's homer scored Herrera and Ashley Salcido,
and the Lions then made errors on balls hit by Alexa Marquez, Mya Gomez,
Neftali Salgado and Jessica Rodriguez, all of whom ended up scoring.
Overall, the Eagles ended up with five hits to only three for Clint,
though the Lions fared better against Herrera than last month, when she
came on in relief and shut down Clint over the final three innings, as
Pecos rallied from an 8-3 deficit to win, 13-9.
"The thing is when we play Clint in Clint they definitely have a home
field advantage," Walls said. "Our batting wasn't real great, but they
played the game under pressure, and Mya Gomez had a good game defensively,
as did Jessica Rodriguez."
The victory improves the Eagles' record to 5-0 in District 2-4A and
gives them an 8-9 record on the season. Clint, meanwhile, falls to 3-3
and leaves them a game behind both Fabens and San Elizario in the race
for the final two post-season playoff berths. Fabens defeated Canutillo,
14-13 and San Elizario edged El Paso Mountain View, 7-5, in Tuesday's other
games.
Mountain View remains winless in district play on the season, and will
be in Pecos on Thursday to take on the Eagles, in a make-up game following
the teams' March 27 rain out.
Eagles survive bad start to rout Mountain View
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, April 4, 2001 - The Pecos Eagles managed to come up with an impressive
score and not-so-impressive win at the same time Tuesday evening against
the El Paso Mountain View Lobos.
The 24-6 final score in five inning was impressive, but it came against
a Mountain View team that lost its season opener 31-1, dropped its first
two district games by a combined 29-0 score and has yet to win a game so
far in the 2001 season. The unimpressive part was that after 1½
inning of play, the winless Lobos held a 6-2 lead on the Eagles, who were
seeking their 10th straight victory.
"We came out with no intensity and made a lot of mistakes," said coach
Elias Payan, who was taking the place of head coach Bubba Williams, who
was in Austin after his daughter Laurie gave birth on Monday. "We made
a lot of mental errors and Barney (Rodriguez) had trouble with his control."
Payan said the 6 p.m. start in mid-90s temperatures might have had something
to do with the problems. "Our kids are not used to playing here so early,"
he said. The game was moved up from its normal 7 p.m. start at Mountain
View's request, because none of Pecos' district rivals play any night games
in the El Paso area.
"Later on, after we settled down we came through, Barney threw strikes
and we started getting hits behind him," Payan added. Rodriguez improved
his record to 4-0 on the season while allowing four hits and striking out
seven, six of those after the Lobos scored all of their runs.
Mountain View scored twice before Rodriguez could get an out in the
first inning. Kris Sylva walked and went to third on Eric Soto's single,
and the Lobos then pulled off a double steal, with Sylva scoring. Carlos
Gonzales then blooped an RBI single down the line in right before Rodriguez
got out of the inning, but not before hitting Mario Flores with a pitch
and seeing both runners move into scoring position.
Walks to David Elkins and Rodriguez and an error by Miguel Garcia on
Alex Garcia's fielder's choice grounder to second set up Angel Villalobos'
two-run single in the bottom of the first that tied the game, but the Lobos
then scored four more times in the second inning.
A walk, single and an error by Alex Garcia at second on a Sylva grounder
put Mountain View back in front, and then Rodriguez hit Soto and Carlos
Villalobos with pitches to force home another run, and walked Flores to
make it 5-2. A squeeze bunt by Cesar Sanchez scored Soto to make it 6-2.
Having a four-run lead for the first time this season, the Lobos proceeded
to give it all away in the bottom of the second. Luis Saldana started the
Eagles' comeback with a one out single off Carlos Villalobos, who then
walked Elkins on four pitches. Garcia then reached on Miguel Garcia's second
error at second base, and Saldana scored when right fielder Jonathan Martinez
fell down trying to field the ball. Villalobos then wild pitched Garcia
home on a walk to Ortega, and after Rodriguez struck out and Angel Villalobos
walked, Rigo Ramirez tied the game with a two-run single.
After a balk and a walk to Capi Magana, Carlos Villalobos was replaced
on the mound by Sanchez, who fared no better. He walked Matthew Levario
to force home the go-ahead run, then walked Saldana and gave up a two-run
single to Elkins. The Eagles then pulled off their own double-steal, with
Saldana scoring to make it 11-6, before the Lobos finally ended the inning.
Given a five-run lead, Rodriguez only needed 12 pitches to strike out
the side in the third inning. Pecos wasted a lead-off triple by Ortega
in their half of the third, but were able to turn a double play in the
fourth after a one-out single by Gonzales.
Then in the bottom of the fourth the Eagles would have their biggest
inning of the season, scoring 13 times, nine of those runs coming with
two out. Garcia had a two-run single before then, while the other runs
came on Villalobos' two-run double, a two run error by Martinez, now at
shortstop, a Saldana two-run single, a run scoring error by Ruben Moreno
on an Elkins grounder, another double steal of second and home, an RBI
single by Daniel Terrazas and an RBI double by Rodriguez.
The Eagles improved their season record to 13-5 and their District 2-4A
record to 4-0 with the win, while Mountain View fell to 0-4 in district
play. Three of the four 2-4A victories have come at home, but in each of
them the Eagles have had to rally from early deficits.
"Our mentality right now is we get behind and then have to play catch-up
ball," Payan said. "We have to play with more intensity from the start,
because come playoff time we can't do that."
The win kept Pecos tied for first with San Elizario, which defeated
Canutillo on Tuesday, 5-2. The two Eagle teams will meet in Pecos next
Tuesday to close out the first half of district play. Fabens edged Clint,
7-6, in Tuesday's other district game.
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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