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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
May 10, 2001
Eagles looking to halt Canyon's comebacks
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, May 10, 2001 - Comebacks have been the norm for the Pecos Eagles
in 2001 … at least until their last three games.
This weekend, they'll face a team that has been coming up with even
more comebacks than the Eagles lately, when Pecos begins the Class 4A baseball
playoffs with an area round match-up against the Canyon Eagles.
Game 1 of the best-of-three series will be at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at
Howard College in Big Spring, with Game 2 there at 10 a.m. Saturday and
Game 3, if needed, to follow at about 1 p.m.
Pecos spent the first month of District 2-4A play either falling behind
or losing leads, but managed to win seven of their first eight 2-4A contests.
But in their last thee games, the Eagles have taken early leads and kept
them all the way, beating El Paso Mountain View, 15-0, and San Elizario
12-1 to win the district title and earn a first round playoff bye, then
downing Seminole a week ago by a 5-3 score in a playoff practice game.
It improved their record to 19-6 on the season.
Canyon, meanwhile, came from a game behind Hereford midway through the
District 3-4A schedule to beat out the Whitefaces for second place in the
standings, then came back after losing the first game of their bi-district
series against Big Spring last week to defeat the Steers, 11-10 and 8-7,
rallying from five- and seven-run deficits in those games to advance to
the area round and improve to 18-11 overall.
"The kids played real hard," said coach Gary Hix. "I was proud of the
way they handled themselves in situations like that.
"We had been in a tight district race all the way. They beat us the
first time in Hereford, and I think it was an advantage for us to be playing
them the second time with second an third place on the line," he added.
Hix said junior lefthander Ben Weston would probably get the start in
Friday's opener, while Eagles' coach Bubba Williams said sophomore Barney
Rodriguez would start on the mound for Pecos.
Hix said Weston is only 3-5 on the season, but added, "We've thrown
him against their toughest people. Usually he's gone up against the other
team's No. 1 pitcher and has done a good job, but has just come up a little
short."
"He's a good control pitcher," Williams said. "He throws a lot of breaking
pitches, so we've just got to put the ball in play and be patient and wait
for our pitches."
Rodriguez got credit for the Eagles' last two wins, allowing one run
in six innings against San Elizario and two runs (one earned) in four innings
against Seminole to raise his record to 8-0 on the season.
Seniors Pifi Montoya and Angel Villalobos figure to be the Eagles' other
two pitchers in the series, while Hix said sophomores Britty Campbell and
Candy Medellin are his other likely starters in the series.
Offensively, Williams said Canyon doesn't have a lot of power, but "they've
got a lot of line drive hitters and they're quick. They like to run a lot."
"We don't pack much punch. We just try to play station-to-station, move
people over and score a lot of runs," said Hix, who added most of his lineup
has been hitting the ball well this season. "As a team we're hitting .329,
and everybody's right around that area," he said. "It seems like it's a
different kid every time when runners are in scoring position who gets
the big hit."
Pecos will get back shortstop Capi Magana for the first time in three
weeks. Richard Rodriguez, who had been playing short, will move back to
second base now that Magana is eligible again, while Williams said Alex
Garcia will move back out to center field and Rigo Ramirez will go back
to his normal left field position.
The winner of the Pecos-Canyon series will take on the winner of the
Frenship-El Paso Burges series, which will be played this weekend in Hobbs,
N.M.
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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