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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Bears struggle, but down Longhorns in playoffs
By JENNIFER GALVAN
Staff Writer
In a close bi-district basketball playoff game against the Buena Vista
Longhorns, the Balmohrea Bears came away with a 70-63 victory Tuesday
night at the Pecos High School gym.
The Bears, who won the District 9-A title, scored their first two points
of the game 40 seconds into the opening period, while the Longhorns posted
their first two points almost a minute later, but when the first quarter
ended, the Longhorns, who finished second in District 10-A, were the ones
with the lead, as they finished the period up by a 10-8 score. As the second
quarter began the Bears began to pick up their tempo and by the end of the
half time the had put another 26 points on the board and held a 34-21 lead.
But when the third quarter began a different Bears team came out. During
the final two periods of the game Balmorhea was fighting to keep control
of the ball, and Buena Vista was able to cut into the lead.
"The game was terrible," Coach Adolfo Garcia said at the end of the game.
"We need to work on the removal of turnovers and play with control."
The turnovers of which Garcia was talking about came from players both
dribbling off their feet and throwing bad passes.
The score at the end of the third quarter was Balmorhea 52, Buena Vista
43, and while the Bears kept a small lead during the last two quarters Garcia
said that the game should not have turned out the way it did.
"No, it should not have been this close of a game," Garcia said.
As the game came to an end, two Longhorn players fouled out in an attempt
to obtain the control of the ball.
Not sure which team they will be playing next, Garcia said that he hopes
his team will get their act together and get the job done.
He also added that he would like to thank people for their support.
"I would like to thank the Balmorhea fans and anyone that is supporting
us," Garcia said.
Eagles' defensive lapses help Bronchos score win
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The defense wasn't as good as coach Elias Payan had hoped for in the
Pecos Eagles' season-opening baseball game against the Odessa High
Bronchos, and those problems managed to both put Pecos in a five-run
hole against OHS and then spoil the Eagles' five-run comeback to tie
the score.
Pecos rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game at 6-6 with a four-run
fifth inning, only to see OHS use a pair of defensive lapses by the Eagles
in the top of the sixth to score an unearned run with two outs, which allowed
the Bronchos to score a 7-6 victory Tuesday night at Eagle Field.
"We had people being non-aggressive and that cost us," coach Elias Payan
said after Barrett Pradon reached first base on a passed ball by catcher
Ruvel Carrasco on a two-out strikeout, and then scored from there when outfielders
Oscar Parada and Freddy Torres let Justin Jorgensen's short outfield bloop
fall in safely for an RBI single.
The two mistakes followed several other earlier mental lapses and six
errors by Pecos that helped the visiting Bronchos build their 6-1 lead. That
included some bad pitching decisions by Barney Rodriguez, who settled down
in the later innings but ended up taking the loss.
"Early on he worked batters to 0-2 counts, and then came right down the
middle and allowed hits," Payan said. "You can't make those mistakes with
a two-strike count, especially when we get to district.
"Then Barney started settling down, but we had some defensive lapses and
missed some balls we should have caught," he added.
Rodriguez had leadoff hitter Morrie Whitmore down 1-2 in the count when
he lined a leadoff home run off the wooden sign behind the left field fence
to open the game. Then after a single by Pradon, a walk to Manuel Lopez and
two strikeouts, Rodriguez surrendered an RBI single to Ramon Samaniego, and
then walked Ryan Sherman and wild-pitched Lopez home for the third run of
the game.
In the third inning, Pradon lined Rodriguez' first pitch over the fence
in left to make it 4-0, and while Rodriguez survived a one out error after
that, he gave up two more runs in the fourth, thanks to four Pecos errors.
Matthew Levario had two of the errors, booting Rene Hinojos' leadoff grounder,
and then throwing the ball past first base trying to complete a double play
on a Whitmore fielder's choice grounder to Zoe Serrano at second base. Darren
Rybolt followed with line drive into center field that Parada misjudged.
It resulted in a double that scored Whitmore, and Rybolt then scored when
Rodriguez' pickoff throw sailed past second base and then bounced under the
glove of Parada.
Two bad hop hits followed, but Jose Reyes was able to start a double play
on a Lopez grounder to third to end the inning, and Serrano and Levario turned
a double play in the top of the fifth to keep Rodriguez out of trouble.
Meanwhile, OHS starter Bryan Teeters got through the first two innings
with only minor problems, but in the third allowed his first run on the Eagles'
first hit of the night, a two-out single by Levario that scored David Elkins,
who had walked and stolen second base with two away. The Bronchos then had
defensive problems of their own to help Pecos get back into the game, as
Rigo Ramirez scored on a wild pitch after a leadoff single, as he moved up
when Sherman misplayed the ball in center field and was balked to third base
by Teeters.
Teeters was replaced on the mound by Bryan Young in the fourth inning,
and he immediately hit Parada in the back with his first pitch. Designated
hitter Joey Ortega then doubled to right-center field to score Parada, and
after two walks and two strikeouts, Torres singled to center field to score
two more runs, and Pecos tied the game when the throw from the outfield got
past Hinojos at home plate, allowing Ramirez to score.
Pecos had chances to tie the game in the sixth inning off Lopez, who relieved
Young after Torres RBI hit and ended up earning the victory, and in the seventh
off Pradon, who picked up a save despite doing a Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams
impersonation.
Jose Reyes opened the sixth with a bloop single to center, but was then
picked off first base by Lopez. In the seventh, Pradon walked pinch hitter
Javier Ramirez to lead things off, then hit Elkins and Torres, but fanned
Levario, Rigo Ramirez and Rodriguez, with the first two missing chances to
get bunts down before striking out.
"Our bats came alive a little bit, but we've got to be able to get our
bunts down when we need them," Payan said. "To be successful we've got to
win these type of ballgames, and we can't be satisfied saying a 5A team only
beat us 7-6. We've got to win games like that."
The Eagles will get two chances on Saturday to get their first win of
the season, when they host Snyder in a 1 p.m. doubleheader. The Tigers also
moved down to Class 3A this season, and could be a bi-district round opponent
for Pecos in the playoffs in May.
At Pecos
ODESSA HIGH PECOS
Whtmre rf 3 2 1 1 Elkins rf 0 2 0
0
J.Rdrgz rf 1 0 0 0 Levario ss 4 0 1
1
Rybolt lf 4 1 1 1 Ri.Rmrz 1b 3 2 1
0
Pradon ss-p 4 3 3 1 Torres lf 3 0 1
2
Jrgnsn 1b 4 0 3 1 B.Rdrgz p 4 0 0
0
Teeters p 0 0 0 0 J.Reyes 3b 3 0 1
0
Young p 0 0 0 0 Parada cf 2 1 0 0
Lopez dh-p 2 1 0 0 Serrano 2b 0 0 0
0
Ro.Rmz 2b 0 0 0 0 Ortega dh 3 0 1
1
Smngo 2b-ss 4 0 2 0 V.Reyes pr 0 1 0
0
Shrmn cf 3 0 0 0 Carrasco c 2 0 0
0
Emrsn 3b 3 0 0 0 J.Rmrz ph 0 0 0 0
Hinojos c 2 0 0 0
Ro.Rmz cr 0 0 0 0
Totals 30 7 10 5 Totals 24 6
5 4
Odessa High 3 0 1 2 0 1 0 _ 7
Pecos 0 0 1 1 4 0 0 _ 6
E _ Torres, Levario 3, B. Rodriguez, Parada, Sherman, Hinojos. LOB _ Odessa
7, Pecos 5. DP _ Pecos 2. SB _ Pradon, Levario, Samaniego, Elkins.
IP H R ER BB
KO
Odessa
Teeters 4 2 2 1 2 4
Young 2/3 2 4 3 2
2
Lopez (W, 1-0) 11/3 1 0 0 0
2
Pradon (Save 1) 1 0 0 0 1 3
Pecos
B.Rdrgz (L, 0-1) 7 10 7 4 4 7
HBP _ Parada by Young; Elkins, Torres by Pradon. Balk _ Teeters.
WP _ B. Rodriguez, Teeters. PB _ Carrasco 2.
T _ 2:04
Pecos softball games again are canceled
The Pecos Eagles second attempt to play a pre-district softball game against
the Alpine Bucks didn't go any better than the first one did, as the Eagles'
saw their game in Alpine canceled for the second Tuesday in a row.
The girls were scheduled to face both the Bucks and District 4-3A rival
Presidio in games at Alpine on Tuesday, but will now have to wait until this
Friday to play their next game, at the Tall City Tournament in Midland. Coach
Tammy Walls said Pecos would open the tournament against Midland Greenwood,
which is favored to win the 4-3A title, at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.
Pecos is 3-2 on the season following this past weekend's Andrews Tournament.
They lost to tournament champion Midland Christian and to the host Mustangs'
black team, while beating El Paso Eastwood, Fabens and Lubbock Cooper in
their other games. Walls said this weekend's tournament in Midland would
feature 39 teams, including all of the Eagles' district rivals except for
Presidio.
Pecos' junior varsity softball team will also be entered in the tournament,
and their 10:30 a.m. game Friday will be their season opener. The Eagles
will face either Crane or Odessa High's white team in their opener, Walls
said.
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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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