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Pecos will now take on Big Spring in the semifinal game of the
double-elimination tournament, set for 8:30 p.m. tonight. The winner
will advance to the tournament finals at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, while the
loser will play in the 7:30 p.m. Friday elimination game.
Richard Rodriguez struck out 13 Perryton hitters, including Matthew Bond
with the bases loaded and two outs to end the game. An error and two
walks had loaded the bases with two out, after Pecos had taken a 3-1
lead in the bottom of the sixth inning on a one out single by Sammy
Gonzales that scored Abel Lopez from second base.
Lopez had walked and moved to second on a bad pickoff throw by pitcher
Cody Merrill, who took the loss.
Perryton used a hit batter in the second inning to grab a 1-0 lead, but
Pecos tied it in their half of the second, then took the lead for good
on Paul Juarez' RBI single in the fourth.
Merrill scored Perryton's lone run, after being hit by a 1-2 pitch from
Rodriguez to lead off the second. He stole second, went to third on a
wild pitch, then scored on a fielder's choice grounder to shortstop by
Robert Mendez.
Two errors by Mendez at shortstop in the bottom of the inning helped
Pecos tie the score. He booted Tony Trujillo's two-out grounder, and
after Gonzales walked, threw away Juarez' grounder to short, allowing
pinch runner Eddie Mata to score.
The bottom of the order for Pecos did most of the damage Wednesday, with
some help from Juarez, the Junior Leaguers' leadoff hitter. David Meline
led off the fourth with a double to left off Merrill, and was sacrificed
to third by Lopez. He couldn't score on Trujillo's grounder to Mendez,
but Juarez followed with his RBI single to center.
Meline was almost caught off third on Trujillo's grounder, while Pecos
had three other runners thrown out at home plate and one other picked
off at first. Perryton had one runner thrown out at home in the fifth
inning, after Pecos had taken the lead, then got Mendez and Eric
Valenzuela to second and third with one out in the seventh, where they
were left stranded by Rodriguez.
It was the third victory of the tournament for Rodriguez, and his third
complete game. Tonight, Pecos figures to go with Capi Magana on the
mound against Big Spring. He struggled in his first start in tournament
play, but beat Tri-County, 13-3, then shut down San Angelo Lake View
last Saturday, 9-1.
Tonight's game will follow the elimination game between Perryton and
Lubbock. the winner of that game will face the loser of tonight's Pecos-Big Spring contest.
One of them took a hard hop and rolled 20 feet past. Another came up
short and disappeared into the bunker. The best he could do was 6 feet
from the cup, which earned him sympathetic applause from the gallery.
Faldo has won the British Open three times and finished in the top 10
nine other times since he first played in it as a teen-ager in 1976. He
knows as well as anyone that imagination and a well-rounded game are
imperative -- and sometimes even that isn't enough.
``As usual on the links, the bigger the luck element,'' he said on the
eve of the 126th British Open, which began today at Royal Troon.
Getting all parts of his game in working order wouldn't be a bad place
to start for Faldo.
``I feel my game has been a little bit under,'' he said Wednesday. ``It
doesn't take much. Some areas you feel you are just 10 percent off. It
makes a big difference in this game -- a major difference.
``When I play well, it is as good as anything, but my consistency hasn't
been as good,'' he added. ``Normally, I can make the odd mistake, then
scramble and get away with it. At the moment, I have been making too
many mistakes, and not being able to scramble so well.''
His putting failed him at the Masters, where instead of defending his
title he missed the cut for only the fourth time in his 22 years as a
professional. His short game suffered at the U.S. Open, where he barely
made the cut and finished tied for 48th.
He still believes he should be able to win one major championship every
couple of years. But Faldo, who turns 40 on Friday, realizes there are
more and more stars standing in the way.
At the U.S. Open, it was the coolness of 27-year-old Ernie Els. At
Augusta, Faldo witnessed the phenomenal power and shotmaking ability of
Tiger Woods.
Even the players he has battled for the past decade are all in a groove
-- Greg Norman, a two-time winner who has finished no worse than 18th in
the last eight British Opens; Nick Price, the 1994 champion; defending
champion Tom Lehman and Colin Montgomerie, who finished second to Els at
the U.S. Open.
All of them will be put to a stern test at Troon, with its narrow,
bending fairways, pot bunkers that often require a sand wedge just to
get the ball back in play, and rough that can be fierce or forgiving.
``One thing you understand with Royal Troon right now, the fairways have
grown into 18 to 22 yards and they're dog-legged at the narrowest
point,'' said Norman, who lost in a playoff here in 1989. ``You're going
to have a lot of problems if you're not shaping the ball and you're not
hitting the ball the right distance.''
The biggest challenge of all is the wind, which sweeps in from the Firth
of Clyde and makes the final nine holes of Troon as difficult as any
closing nine in major championship golf.
``If the conditions stay the way they are right now out there, I think a
pretty high score will win this championship,'' said Els, who tied for
second a year ago. ``The course is going to play really long. The rough
is up, especially on the back nine. So I think it's going to take a lot
of patience, and a lot of courage, and all the rest of the stuff that
come with trying to win a major championship.''
Above all, the oldest professional championship in golf is about
perseverance.
Faldo's last Open win in 1992 came after John Cook's collapse. Tom
Watson won at Troon in 1982, but only after Nick Price played the last
six holes in 4 over par.
And the final nine at Troon are as difficult as any in major
championship golf. If the wind blows according to form, the front nine
plays downwind and gives players their best chance to get under par.
Eight of the nine closing holes are dead into the wind. The most brutal
of them all is No. 11, which is 463 yards and is now playing as a par 4.
When Tom Weiskopf won at Troon in 1973, he never hit the 11th green in
two shots.
``The back nine is tough all the way in,'' Faldo said. ``If it is
blowing, it will be hard work.''
Asked what he would like for his 40th birthday, the answer was obvious
to Faldo.
``A nice little Claret Jug,'' he said. At Troon, that won't come easily.
The newspaper cited a source it did not name as saying the fine would be
imposed for conduct detrimental to the team.
No other establishments are off-limits to players, the source said.
Jones says he has ordered players to stay away from the Cowboy's Sports
Cafe, a bar just a few blocks from the team's practice complex. Until
now, the bar was a popular hangout for players. It is owned by former
players Tony Dorsett, Eugene Lockhart, Alfredo Roberts and Everson
Walls.
Jones refused to discuss his reasons for the ban.
``I don't want to get into in-depth reasons why we made the decision,''
the owner said. ``But it was overwhelmingly a decision we needed to
make.''
A source close to the team said one reason reserve tight end Kendall
Watkins was cut this week is because he defied the ban.
On Monday, coach Barry Switzer said Watkins was released because the
team was displeased with his conditioning and his behavior.
Watkins' agent, Brian Levy, said the tight end weighed 278 pounds when
he visited the Miami Dolphins on Tuesday. That's four pounds less than
the Cowboys had him listed in their media guide last year.
Prior to his release, Watkins was scheduled to make $180,300 bonus for
reporting to training camp on Friday.
``I don't know what they've got to gain by saying bad things about
him,'' Levy said. ``They just didn't want to pay him.''
``Kendall's not an angel, but that's not a tabernacle choir they've got
in Dallas.''
A source told the newspaper that Jones made the ban known about a month
ago and discussed it with the sports bar owners.
``It seems a little hasty because the ownership has always had good
reputations,'' Walls said. ``It's kind of hard to tell grown men what to
do once they leave the premises, especially when they're going to places
that are legal.''
Walls said former Cowboys coach Tom Landry advised players every year of
places they should stay away from.
The Cowboys have had seven drug-related NFL suspensions in the past
three years. Since the end of last season, Jones has hired former
cowboys star Calvin Hill and his wife as consultants to deal with team
behavior problems.
Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, 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@bitstreet.com
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