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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Monday, March 29, 2004
Greenwood walks away from Pecos with win
The Pecos Eagles didn’t get a lot of hits against the Greenwood Rangerettes Friday afternoon in Pecos, but not for a lack of trying - even when they shouldn’t have.
The Eagles were three-hit by Greenwood’s Sarah Heidelberg, who benefited from a lack of patience by Pecos’ hitters to toss her third shutout in District 4-3A play. Meanwhile, the Rangerettes didn’t manage a hit after the first inning off Pecos pitcher Stephanie Herrera, but they used those and a game-opening error to score two times, and Heidelberg made that stand up for a 2-0 victory over the Eagles.
“I thought Stephanie pitched outstanding, but we just had one mistake and I think it took them by surprise,” said Eagles’ coach Tammy Walls. Herrera allowed just one walk ad struck out night, but was out-pitched by Hiedelberg, who was helped herself by Pecos’ own hitters.
Three times during the game Heidelberg went to 3-0 counts on Pecos batters, and all three times, the Eagles failed to get a runner on base. Twice Eagle hitters swung at 3-0 pitches while the other time the senior was able to come back and eventually strike out Amalie Herrera.
“If we don’t go to the plate and be selective about the pitches we swing at, we’re not going to hit the ball,” Walls said. “On 3-0, the kids were given the ‘take’ sign, but I don’t know if it was nerves or they were trying too hard, but they just swung.”
Amalie Herrera had come the closest of any Pecos player to scoring in the first inning. She reached on a two-out infield hit, stole second and went to third on Stephanie Herrera’s single, but was then tagged out at home by Veronica Carruth on an attempted double-steal.
The only other hit in the game would also come with two outs, by Stephanie Herrera in the third inning, but Heidelberg then got Bre’Ann Windham to pop up to end the inning. In the seventh, the Eagles finally did get a walk, as Heidelberg missed on a 3-2 pitch to Amalie Herrera, but she came back to strike out Stephanie Herrera and got Windham and Savannah Ewing to pop out and ground out to end the game.
Meanwhile, Greenwood took advantage of the only error of the game to score two unearned runs in their first at-bat. Kelsey Flores misplayed Kim Smith’s leadoff grounder, and Smith then scored on Savannah Neely’s double to left field. Two outs later, she came home on a single by Shannon Richard for a 2-0 lead.
Herrera then retired the side, and Greenwood would manage only one other baserunner the rest of the game, when Neely walked with one out in the third. She would steal second and third, but Herrera would strike out Emily Burgess and Carruth to retire the side.
Greenwood’s win kept them alone in first in the District 4-3A standings, with 4-0 record, while Pecos is 2-2 and tied for third with Fort Stockton, who lost to 3-1 Monahans on Friday, 10-0. The Eagles close out the first half of their district schedule on Tuesday with a trip to Fort Stockton to face the Prowlers.
Greenwood 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 2 2 0
Pecos 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 3 1
Heidleberg and Carruth. S. Herrera and Lobstein. W - Heidelberg. L - Herrera.
E - Pecos, Flores. 2B - Greenwood, Neely. SB - Greenwood, Neely 2. Pecos, A. Herrera. CS - Pecos, A. Herrera. PB - Greenwood, Carruth.
Holes in Jackets’ defense help Eagles win, 9-6
Pre-district records meant as much for the Pecos Eagles and Kermit Yellowjackets Friday night in Pecos as it did a year ago, when the Eagles opened their District 4-3A schedule in Kermit.
Last year, the Eagles were the ones coming in with the impressive pre-district record, and they proceeded to get manhandled by the Jackets in their 4-3A opener.
Friday night, the Jackets were the ones going into the game with a 10-4 season mark, while the Eagles entered riding a six game losing streak, and with a 3-12 overall record. And the teams appeared ready to play to form when Kermit collected four hits in the first inning off Josh Anchondo and went out to a quick 2-0 lead.
But the Eagles would come back in their half of the first, scoring five times and chasing starter Jay Bennett from the mound. Lupe Munoz would come on to pitch, but Pecos would take advantage of Kermit’s defensive problems to add three more runs, while Anchondo held the Jackets in check for the next four innings. That allowed the Eagles to build up an eventual 9-3 lead, which in turn allowed Anchondo to survive a shaky sixth inning and come away with a 9-6 victory in their 2004 district opener.
“We came to play tonight. The kids came out tonight and knew what happened in the past was past and that we were starting over at 0-0,” said Eagles’ coach Elias Payan.
A schedule change may have benefited Pecos. Kermit and Fort Stockton moved what would have been their April 9 meeting up two weeks to this past Tuesday, and as a result Munoz started that game. He struck out 15 Panthers, but was outpitched by Esteban Lara in a 1-0 loss, and began Friday’s game at catcher, with Bennett starting on the mound.
That Eagles immediately got to the senior, thanks in part to the first of 10 errors on the night for the Jackets. Jesus Aranda booted Jaime Muela’s bouncer for an error, and Victor Reyes followed with the first of Pecos’ nine hits on the night. Muela went to third on Oscar Parada’s deep fly out, and scored on Jose Reyes’ RBI single.
Anchondo followed with another RBI hit before Kermit committed its second error, when Munoz dropped Aranda’s throw home on Edward Valencia’s grounder, allowing Jose Reyes to score and put Pecos ahead, 3-2. A walk to Eddie Vela loaded the bases, and then Isaiah Rayos singled to make it 4-2. Bennett then hit Robert Nunez to force home Valencia, and move Munoz from catcher to the mound.
He got out of trouble when Vela got a late start on Muela’s fly out to right, and was tagged out at home, and Pecos would score twice more in the second, thanks to two errors by Randy Castillo at shortstop, a balk by Munoz and a throwing error by new catcher Cooter Greene.
In contrast, the Eagles made only one error on the night, and that came with Pecos ahead by five runs in the sixth inning. It was in sharp contrast to their recent games, in which errors had opened the gates for a series of unearned runs.
“We came out and made the plays we had to tonight. We had some mental lapses on the bases that kept Kermit in the game, but the Pecos Eagles finally showed up tonight,” Payan said.
Kermit had gotten their runs in the first inning on RBI singles by Jaime Gallardo and Aranda with the bases loaded. In the second, singles by Bennett and Munoz and a double by Erbey Saucedo with two outs cut Pecos’ lead to 5-3, before Anchondo retired the side. He was then able to work around Kermit’s hitters for the next three innings, while his teammates scored single runs in the third and fifth innings.
A leadoff hit by Rayos and two more errors, by Aranda and Castillo, got the Eagles their run in the third, while in the fifth they got a controversial run off new pitcher Gallardo with two outs, when Valencia was given a bases-loaded walk on what appeared to be a 2-2 count to force home Parada, who had singled with two away.
Kermit, which ended up with a dozen hits on the night, halved Pecos’ lead in the sixth, when Greene, Gustavo Madrid and Hunter Hardaway all singled to open the inning. Another run would score on a Bennett ground out, and a passed ball by Muela would bring Hardaway home, but Anchondo then got Munoz and Saucedo to end the inning and retired the side in order in the ninth for his third victory of the season.
“Josh usually will have one bad inning, but then he’ll bear down and that’s why he’s our ace,” Payan said. “Sometimes he gets his head down when that happens, but he just needs to realize when things go wrong he just has to bear down and get after it.”
The victory gave Pecos a 1-0 district mark going into Tuesday night’s home game against Monahans, which dropped its 4-3A opener to Presidio by a 10-0 score. Kermit falls to 0-2 and will host Greenwood on Tuesday. The Rangers beat Fort Stockton in extra innings in their opener, 21-11.
Kermit 2 1 0 0 0 3 0 -- 6 12 10
Pecos 5 2 1 0 1 0 x -- 9 9 1
Bennett, Munoz (1), Gallardo (4) and Munoz, Greene (1). Anchondo and Muela. W - Anchondo. L - Bennett.
E - Kermit, Aranda 4, Munoz, Castillo 3, Greene 2. Pecos, Vela. DP - Kermit 2, Pecos 1. 2B - Kermit, E. Saucedo, Bennett. SB - Kermit, Munoz. Pecos, Parada. HBP - Nunez by Bennett, Anchondo by Gallardo. Balk - Kermit, Munoz 2. WP - Kermit, Munoz. PB - Kermit, Greene. Pecos, Muela.
Eagles capture medals in EP, Angelo meets
Pecos Eagles’ sprinter Jummy Akinyode picked up a pair of gold medals on Saturday in El Paso, running as part of a high school and college track event put on by the University of Texas-El Paso, while Pecos’ boys ended up with a quartet of second place finishes running at the San Angelo Relays over the weekend.
The second day of the San Elizario Invitational was folded into the inaugural UTEP Springtime Relays at the Sun Bowl, along with two other high school track meets scheduled in El Paso on Saturday. As a result, only six races in each division were held on Saturday, with Akinyode winning both her normal race, the 200-meter dash, with a 27.46 time, and also running a 13.36 to win the 100-meter dash, a race she has not normally been entered in this season.
“We’re going to look at putting here somewhere else this week,” Eagles’ coach Roxie Chavez said. “We’re looking at trying to get her our of regionals, not just district, so we’ll try her in the 1/4 (400 meter dash) this week.”
In addition to Akinyode’s first place efforts, the Eagles’ 1600-meter relay team took second place behind El Paso Del Valle, with a 4:34.58 time at the Sun Bowl. In the events held in San Elizario, Chavez said Leslie Rodriguez got second in the high jump, Chantell Mazone was third in both the discus and shot put, Alessandra Carrasco was fourth in the 400 and 800 meters and Jennifer Martinez was fifth in the 1600 meter run.
“The sprint relay came in fifth and they should have come in third. The last exchange we had a bad handoff, and if we had gotten that we would have come in higher,” Chavez said.
Overall Pecos ended up with 70 points, while former district rival Canutillo won the meet with 121 points.
The boys ended up in seventh place overall at the meet with 51 points, as Burnet edged Sweetwater for first place by a 104-96 point margin.
“Burnet is a strong team,” coach Jerry Parent said, while adding, “We didn’t run in six of the 11 events.
A pair of Burnet runners took first place over Pecos’ Rashad Terry in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Ty Kuhn edged Terry in the 100 meter dash by a 10.91 to 10.94 margin, while Jordan Shipley ran a 21.88 to Terry’s 22.33 to take the 200 meter dash. Earlier in the meet, Terry finished sixth in the high jump, clearing 5-foot-6.
The Eagles also picked up a pair of third place medals in the running events, as Alex Orosco took third in the 400-meter dash with a 53.33 time and Jeremiah Mora was third in the 800 meters with a time of 2:08.08. The Eagles’ other points in the running events came from the 800-meter relay team, which finished sixth.
“Jeremiah ran a smart race,” Parent said, though he wasn’t happy with the race the 800-meter relay team run. “We didn’t run very well. Our exchanges were terrible,” he said.
In the field events, Chad Evans had his best throw of the year, a 48-foot-3 3/4 effort, to take second in the shot put, while Justin Lara cleared 12-feet too finish second in the pole vault in his second meet back from a knee injury.
“He (Evans) was ahead the entire way, until the other kid threw 49-11 at the end,” Parent said. “Justin did well. It still stings when he goes over and lands, but he did look good vaulting.”
Evans also finished sixth in the discus with a 133-foot toss, while John Parent was fourth there, with a 141-foot-9 throw.
Both Eagle teams will be in Kermit this Friday for the Permian Basin Relays at Walton Field.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
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324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
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Copyright 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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