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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Monday, March 10, 2003
Eagle runners pick up golds at WT Relays
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Fans who have been following the Pecos Eagles track team over the years
know that gold medals haven't been all that common for the Eagles at
the big meets, like this past weekend's West Texas Relays.
So it was a bit of a change on Saturday at Ratliff Stadium, when the Eagles
took first in three of the first four running finals and came close to sweeping
all four, before ending up overall with four gold medals on the afternoon.
Overall, the Eagles ended up third in the Division I boys' team standings
with 91 points, to Monahans 127 and Abilene Wylie's 100 points. "The field
events got us," said Eagles' coach Jerry Parent, as the Loboes picked up
51 points in those events to just 19 for the Eagles.
Monahans also won the 400 meter relay, but just barely, as the Eagles
were able to recover from a bad start to finish second with a 44.61 time
to the Loboes' 44.43.
"Jason (Sanchez) had a bad first leg," Parent said, as Pecos was in seventh
place after the first 100 meters and were in fifth going into the final 100,
before Rashad Terry made up ground on the anchor leg to finish just behind
the Loboes' Richard Covington.
Terry would reverse that result a little while later, winning a photo
finish over Covington in the finals of the 100-meter dash by .02 second,
with a 10.86 time. That came after Isaiah Juarez had taken the 800-meter
run and Jack Bradley had won the 110-meter high hurdles. Juarez, who first
ran the race a week earlier at Fort Stockton, had a 2:05.99 time, while Bradley
ran a 15.31 in the hurdles, after placing third in Friday's preliminaries.
Terry also took first place later in the 200 meter dash, with a 22.23
time, while the Eagles picked up their other points on Saturday from fifth
place finishes in both the 800 and 1600 meter relays, a fifth place finish
by Jeremiah Mora in the 800 meter run, a fourth place finish by Genaro Mendoza
in the 1600 meters and sixth place finishes by Will Armstrong in the 200
meters and Alex Orosco in the 400 meters.
On Friday Mendoza was fifth and Juarez sixth in the 3200 meter run, while
the Eagles picked up a second place finish from Justin Lara in the pole vault,
with Armstrong finishing fourth in the first competition of the season for
the vaulters. Terry earned the Eagles' other four points with a fourth place
finish in the high jump.
With spring break this week, the Eagles will be off until March 21-22,
when they go to the San Angelo Relays. Most of the same teams will be in
San Angelo, along with several other Region I-3A schools from the Fort Worth
area.
Eagles overcome defense, Loboes, Bulldogs' JV
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Pecos Eagles are getting very good at comebacks, though coach Elias
Payan would prefer they not get behind some of the teams they've been
trailing lately in the first place.
The Eagles, who rallied from five runs down in the opening game of the
West Texas March Classic against Seminole to tie the game, only to lose in
the final inning, came back from three runs down on Friday afternoon to defeat
Monahans by a 4-3 final score. Then on Saturday in the consolation finals,
the Eagles rallied from a three-run deficit in the seventh inning to tie
the score on Oscar Parada's two-out, two-run double, and won it in the ninth
inning on Jose Reyes' RBI single after David Elkins' leadoff double.
The only problem was, the Eagles had to rally from behind against Midland
High's junior varsity team, so the 8-7 win over the Bulldogs in the tournament's
consolation finals didn't make the Eagles' coach as happy as he might have
been under other circumstances.
"We're battling back when we're down, which is a good thing, but the defense
has got to get better, because there's no way they should have stayed on
the field with us," Payan said, after Midland scored three times each in
the third and fourth innings off Pecos errors to grab the lead, after the
Eagles went ahead early in the game, 3-0.
"We've got to get better on defense against the good teams, but I'm happy
with the character of the kids because when they get behind, they don't quit,"
he added.
Elkins and Reyes opened the game with doubles off pitcher David Hart,
and the Eagles collected three more hits in the second, including an RBI
single by Elkins. Parada would score Levario with a sacrifice fly in the
third, but for the next three innings the Eagles would struggle against the
Bulldog pitcher's curveball.
Midland tied the game in the third on three errors and a mix-up in the
outfield between Elkins on Freddy Torres on a Hart fly ball that fell in
for a double, and scored three more in their next at bat, following a leadoff
error by Levario, a passed ball by Ruvel Carrasco and a wild pitch by Reyes,
who went all nine innings and got his first win in three decisions this season.
A triple by Matt Cargile and a wild pitch by Reyes made it 7-4 in the
top of the seventh, but Carrasco reached on an error by shortstop Rocky Gutierrerez
to open the bottom of the inning. Pinch-runner Javier Ramirez stole second
and scored on Elkins' single, and after Reyes flew out to center, Levario
doubled down the line in right to put the tying runs at second and third.
Gutierrez replaced Hart on the mound and struck out Torres, but Parada lined
an 0-1 pitch down the line in left to tie the game.
In Friday's win over Monahans, the Eagles rallied in their last three
at-bats against Dimas Porras, who had one-hit them a week earlier in the
Sandhills Tournament. Joey Ortega had the game-tying hit in the top of the
sixth and Victor Reyes' sacrifice won it for Pecos in the top of the seventh,
as Levario picked up his first win of the season by two-hitting the Loboes.
"We played better against Monahans, but we still had five or six errors,"
Payan said. "The thing was our kids always get up for Monahans and they had
only two hits off Matthew, so they couldn't take advantage.
"Matthew did a good job pitching, even though his elbow started hurting
him a little bit when he tried to throw a curve, so he threw a split-finger
fastball," he added.
Pecos was without pitcher Rigo Ramirez this weekend, so before the win
over Monahans, Payan used freshmen Eddie Vela and Edward Valencia in Friday
morning's game against Brownfield, and they were able to combine for an 11-3
victory over the Cubs.
"Those two kids are the future for us, and they came in and did as well
as I expected," Payan said. "I'm not taking anything away from Brownfield,
but I thought they could come in and compete and do a good job."
Vela went four innings to get the win, while Valencia finished off the
game for the Eagles, who are 8-4 going into Tuesday's home game against San
Angelo Lake View, 11-1 winners over Portales, N.M. on Saturday at the Big
Spring Tournament.
Gamble fails for Eagles in loss to Loboes
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Pecos Eagles' coach Tammy Walls took a gamble and lost Friday afternoon,
in the Eagles' home opener against the Monahans Loboes.
Walls opted to start sophomore pitcher Danielle Garcia against Monahans,
instead of Stephanie Herrera, who had started all but one of the Eagles'
last 16 games in district play.
"Danielle's pitches almost work like a knuckleball, and Fort Stockton
had a hard time hitting her," Walls said prior to Friday's game. "I think
they'll hit Stephanie, but maybe Danielle can keep them off-balance for a
while, and if she gets in trouble I can put Stephanie in."
Unfortunately, Garcia was unable to get her pitches across the plate in
the first inning, walking two batters and allowing a single on a 3-2 pitch,
while two of the runners scored on passed balls. Walls put in Herrera after
that, and she got out of that jam and retired the side in order in the second,
but Monahans got to the junior for eight runs on nine hits in the third inning,
and went on to score a 12-5 victory at Martinez Field.
"The strategy worked against Fort Stockton (a 7-2 win at the Midland Christian
softball tournament), because Danielle throws her knuckleball, but the strategy
depends on throwing it for strikes," Walls said.
Loboes' pitcher Nicole Dickson survived a first inning jam that put Pecos
runners on second and third with none out, and didn't allow a hit until the
third inning, when Kelsey Flores' RBI single got the Eagles on the scoreboard.
Herrera also scored on the play, sneaking home when the Loboes were caught
napping, but Dickson wouldn't allow another run until the seventh, when Neftali
Salgado singled with two on and circled the bases when outfielder Ariceli
Fuentes missed the ball.
Meanwhile, Dickson was caught stealing in the first and Nikki Sanchez
was thrown out trying to score on an error to end the inning, but in the
third the Eagles would commit four errors to go along with Monahans' nine
hits.
The first five batters of the inning singled to make it 5-0 before Raquel
Hawkins reached on a dropped fly ball by Erica Franco. Flores then got the
first out of the inning, catching a pop up behind second base, but her throw
to catcher Brittany Lobstein was wide, allowing a run to score. Herrera struck
out Stacie Fuentes, but the next four Monahans batters then got hits, including
an RBI double by Monique Sanchez.
Flores' single to center in the bottom of the inning came after Dickson
hit Kristy Contreras with one out and walked Herrera with two away. Monahans
got a run back in the fifth on a walk, two stolen bases and another Pecos
error, and would pick up another unearned run in the top of the seventh on
a single and a two-out throwing error.
The Eagles had one other chance to score, in the fifth, when Lobstein
reached on an infield hit and Salgado walked, but Dickson came back to strike
out Herrera and Flores to end the threat. In the seventh, Lobstein singled
with one out, stole second and went to third on a passed ball before Contreras
beat the throw to first base on a fielder's choice grounder, as Lobstein
held at third base. Salgado followed with her single and scored on the error
by Ariceli Fuentes.
"We had a couple of errors and a couple of mental lapses out there, but
the good thing about this game was early on in the season, when we'd have
something like that happen it would be a train wreck and we'd just fall apart,"
Walls said. "Now, we're able to recover, and that shows a little maturity.
We had the one bad inning, but that was it."
The loss leaves Pecos with a 1-1 record in District 4-3A and a 7-8 record
overall. Monahans is 2-0 in district, tied for first with Greenwood, 29-0
winners over Presidio on Friday.
The Eagles are off this week due to Spring Break, and will return to play
on March 18 with a home game against the Kermit Yellowjackets.
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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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