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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Eagles repel late Indian uprising
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, May 4, 2001 - The game didn't mean as much as their last game
did or their next game will, but Pecos Eagles' coach Bubba Williams was
happy with his team's efforts Thursday night in a 5-3 playoff practice
game victory at home over the Seminole Indians.
The Eagles took advantage of Seminole mistakes to score four runs in
the first two innings, then added an insurance run in the sixth before
Barney Rodriguez survived a seventh inning jam to get the victory, striking
out L.J. Glass to end the game with the tying runs on second and third
base.
"Pifi (Montoya) and Barney did a good job pitching, and our kids did
a good job hitting. They were tagging the ball," Williams said. Pecos out-hit
Seminole by a 7-5 margin, and came up with more big plays on defense when
they needed them, though Indians' third baseman Chris Espinoza robbed the
Eagles of scoring chances twice in the late innings.
That came after Pecos scored four times in the first two innings off
Espinoza, who started on the mound and suffered his first loss in nine
decisions this season.
Seminole didn't use their No. 1 pitcher, Aaron Peel, who was resting
a sore arm and spent the night at designated hitter, collecting two of
the Indians' five hits. Meanwhile, Williams opted to go with Montoya on
the mound to start the game, and he allowed only one run on two hits in
three innings of work.
He surrendered only a two-out single to Peel in the first inning, before
Pecos got their first two runs. Richard Rodriguez opened with a single,
and after a walk to Alex Garcia, moved to third base when Austin McBee
couldn't handle Luis Cazares' throw from shortstop on a grounder by Mason
Abila.
Barney Rodriguez followed with a two-run single to left, but Espinoza
was then able to get out of trouble after loading the bases with one out.
Montoya then got out of his own jam in the second, after a walk to Glass
a Scott Braly bloop single and a low throw by Richard Rodriguez to Barney
Rodriguez on a Drew Wirth grounder cut Pecos' lead to 2-1. Montoya came
back to strike out Cazares and Ricardo Cortez before Richard Rodriguez
made a diving grab on a Rob Guerra line drive behind second base to keep
the Indians from tying the score.
Seminole then got the first of its two double plays on the night in
the bottom of the second, when Guerra threw out Joey Ortega at third base
on a Richard Rodriguez fly ball, after Ortega led off the inning with a
double. But Garcia then reached on an error by Glass at second base, stole
second and went to third on a throwing error by Wirth, and came home on
Abila's bloop single to right. Courtesy runner Ruvel Carrasco then scored
from first base when Cortez couldn't handle Barney Rodriguez' wind-blown
fly ball to left field, as Carrasco was ruled to have crossed home plate
before Rodriguez was tagged out at second base.
Cortez came on to pitch in the third inning and shut the Eagles down
over the next three innings, before Pecos scored an unearned run in the
sixth off Braly, when Montoya doubled and Cazares threw a Rigo Ramirez
grounder past third base trying for Carrasco, who was now in the game as
a pinch runner.
Seminole got their second run in the fifth inning off Barney Rodriguez,
after he came on to pitch in the fourth, hitting Wirth before getting Cazares
to ground into a double play. A one out single by Eddie Bustamante and
double by Peel set up the run, when Abila's pickoff throw got past Angel
Villalobos at third base on a strikeout of Espinoza.
Rodriguez appeared ready to finish things off in the seventh, getting
Evan Stone on a fly to right field and then Guerra on a bouncer to Richard
Rodriguez, who went behind the bag at second to throw him out. But he then
ran into control problems, throwing seven straight balls while walking
Bustamante and Peel.
His next pitch was a strike, but Espinoza took it into the gap in left-center
field for an RBI double, cutting the lead to two before he settled down
to strike out Glass with a pitch on the outside corner to end the game
and improve his record to 8-0 on the season.
"Richard Rodriguez picked up his intensity a whole lot, Rigo did a good
job in center field and up and down the lineup we hit the ball," said Williams,
whose team improved to 19-6 on the season, while Seminole, the District
3-4A champ, fell to 20-7 overall.
The Eagles, having won the District 2-4A title last Friday at San Elizario,
are awaiting the winner of the Big Spring-Canyon bi-district playoff series.
Williams said he and his coaches would scout the teams in Lubbock this
weekend, and would set the time and site of next week's series on Saturday.
Pecos seeks no repeats against Andrews
The last time the Pecos Eagles face the Andrews Mustangs in a girl's softball
game. Andrews did a lot of bunting.
Eagles' coach Tammy Walls expects Andrews to do a lot of bunting again
tonight, but hopes that's the only thing similar to the teams' last meeting,
when the Eagles take on the Mustangs in the area round of the Class 4A
playoffs at Muggs Field in Midland.
Pecos, 13-10 and the District 2-4A champions, and Andrews, 20-9and the
third place team from District 4-4A, will meet for the first time since
the final game of the 1998 softball season at 6 p.m. tonight at Ulmer Park,
located south of Wall Street and east of Midkiff Drive. The winner will
advance to the Region I-4A quarterfinals against either Big Spring or El
Paso Parkland next week.
The Eagles were in their first year of varsity softball competition
when they played Andrews in 1998, and closed out their District 4-4A season
with a 22-0 loss to the Mustangs. Pecos managed just one hit on the afternoon,
while pitcher Alexa Marquez spent much of her time fielding bunts put down
by Andrews' hitters, who used the game to prepare for that year's Class
4A playoffs.
Walls went to scout Andrews last week, when they won their bi-district
playoff series over Borger by a 12-1 score, and said Mustangs' coach Eddie
Bane still has the team bunting a lot.
"We've had Stephanie (Herrera) working on fielding bunts a lot this
week," Walls said on Tuesday, adding she was considering a couple of lineup
changes for tonight's playoff game.
"I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do as far as defense goes,"
she said. "I'm going to try and put our stronger players in the positions
I think are going to be key against Andrews."
Marquez and Ashley Salcido are the lone remaining Pecos players off
that 1998 team, and are scheduled to start tonight at second base and shortstop.
Marquez pitched the final inning of Tuesday's 9-6 playoff practice game
loss at Kermit, as the Yellowjackets rallied for five runs in the fifth
inning off Herrera after the Eagles had earlier taken 4-0 and 6-3 leads.
Marquez and Salcido are also the only seniors for the Eagles in the
starting lineup, and unlike three years ago, they'll be facing an Andrews
team tonight with about the same level of experience.
Pitcher Courtney Pool is one of only two seniors in Andrews' starting
lineup, along with left fielder Lindsey James. Walls said the Mustangs
looked strong on defense against Borger, especially junior centerfielder
Candace Minatra. "Their centerfielder ran down a ball in the gap and caught
it, and their pitcher looked real good," she said following last week's
playoff 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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