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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Sports

Monday, April 6, 1998

Abila's two-hitter stops Steers


By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Pitch a game like the one Jason Abila pitched against the
Big Spring Steers Friday night, and you don't have to worry
about your defense making the critical plays behind you -
there aren't any to make.

Control both your fastball and curveball the way Abila was
able to Friday night, and the frustrating sight of opposing
runners moving around the bases at will off passed balls and
wild pitches disappears.

The Eagles' senior had recorded 27 strike outs in his
previous two decisions, but errors, wild pitches and passed
balls had left him saddled with 16 unearned runs and two
losses. But on Friday Abila made things easy for both his
catcher and infielders by completely dominating Big Spring
for 6¶ innings, on the way to an 8-1 victory.

"That's the best he's thrown since the Monahans Tournament,"
Eagles' coach Bubba Williams said. "He had his fastball
going, his curveball was going over, and he hit good."

Along with his two-hit, 14-strikeout performance, Abila also
was 3-for-3 at the plate with two home runs off Steers'
starter Jeff Denton. He had an opposite field shot in the
first, after Oscar Luna's leadoff single, giving Pecos a
quick 2-0 lead, then blasted his seventh of the season, and
fifth in four district games, over the left field fence in
the third, putting Pecos ahead 3-0.

The Eagles' first District 4-4A baseball victory - in fact,
Pecos' first district win in any boys sport this season -
was also Big Spring's first district loss in four games. The
Steers had come through at the end of their previous 4-4A
games to win a trio of tight contests, while the Eagles had
surrendered 46 runs, 29 of those unearned, to Sweetwater,
Andrews and San Angelo Lake View.

But despite that record, Williams said he was confident
going into Friday's game.

"I just knew we were going to beat them. I felt good about
it," he said.

Catcher Cisco Rodriguez had some trouble with Abila's first
two pitches, but after that had one of his best games of the
season behind home plate. Abila's better control of his
curve ball helped Rodriguez, and combined the two kept Big
Spring from taking advantage of the five walks and two hit
batters Abila did give up over the first six innings.

Abila lost his no-hitter in the fifth, when J.J. Aguirre led
off with a bloop single to right field. But the Steers
wouldn't get a solid shot off until two outs in the seventh,
when Jerry Pate doubled to right-center field. The hit
spoiled Abila's shutout, as it scored Jeremy Wright, who
reached on Luis Salgado's throwing error, but Rodriguez then
threw out pinch-runner James Detram trying to steal third
base, ending the game.

Salgado had made the only tough play of the night just
before his error, throwing out Joe Owens from deep at
shortstop. The Eagles did have two other errors, as
Rodriguez and John Gutierrez dropped foul pop-ups, but both
times Abila came back to get strikeouts, fanning Wes Mouton
and then Owens with one out and a runner on in the fourth
and fifth innings.

After Abila's homers gave Pecos their first three runs, the
Eagles took advantage of Big Spring's mistakes to score
their other five, one in the third and four in the fifth
inning.

Denton hit Richard Gutierrez with the pitch after Abila's
second home run, and it cost him when Gutierrez stole second
and third, then scored on a wild pitch.

In the fifth, Kevin Bates reached on an error by Mouton at
second base, and Luna followed with a bunt single. That
brought up Abila, but before he could get his third hit of
the night, an RBI single to left, two more wild pitches over
Abila's head scored Bates and moved Luna to third.

Freshman Clint Bamert, who pitched Big Spring's 4-2
non-district loss to Pecos last month, came on to relieve ad
got Richard Gutierrez to hit a double play ball to
shortstop. But Mouton threw the relay past first base for
another error, and Rodriguez followed with an RBI double for
a 7-0 lead. Another wild pitch and Joseph Contreras'
sacrifice fly to right scored the Eagles' final run of the
night.

The win left Pecos at 9-6 on the season and in a three way
tie for fourth with Sweetwater and Fort Stockton, all at 1-3
in district play. The Panthers won at Sweetwater on
Saturday, 6-4, and host the Eagles Tuesday night. Big Spring
fell out of a tie for first with Andrews, which routed Lake
View on Saturday and hosts the Steers on Tuesday.

Pecos girls show progress in rematch


By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Progress comes one or two small steps at a time for the
Pecos Eagles, in their inaugural softball season.

Friday afternoon, the Eagles play their second home game of
the season and their third overall against the Fort Stockton
Prowlers. And while the outcome was the same - another
five-inning victory for the Prowlers - the 16-5 game was
definitely a step up from both their first game at Maxey
Park against Fort Stockton and from their games earlier in
the week against Andrews and Big Spring.

The Eagles still allowed a lot of unearned runs - three in a
four-run first inning and five in the third - but they also
had a couple of good defensive plays in the field, turning
one into a double play, put together a three-run inning on
the Prowlers in the second and almost were able to avoid
ending the game under the 10-run rule.

Pecos scored twice in the fifth and got runners to second
and third before pitcher Jessica Carrillo fanned Amy Barrera
to end the game.

"We're improving. Katrina (Quiroz) had a good game, and
Tammy Perkins also played well," said Eagles' coach Tammy
Walls, though errors continued to be a problem for Pecos.

Fort Stockton, which scored a 22-1 victory in their first
visit to Pecos last month, got off to a quick 2-0 lead on
singles by Alex Fuentes and Dedra Leyva and a three-base
error by Maricela Arenivas. Carrillo then reached on Amy
Chabarria's error and scored when Christina Robledo had an
inside-the-park home run down the left field line.

Three more errors and another Robledo single in the second
made it 7-0, before Quiroz caught Robledo too far off third
base on a tap in front of home plate by Kimberly Lockhart,
ending the inning. Quiroz then started Pecos' three-run
second with a single to left field.

Shirhonda Bell then walked and one out later, Chabarria
singled to left scoring Quiroz and ending the Eagles' two
game scoreless string. Gabi Bafidis then grounded to
shortstop, but Robledo dropped the throw home and Bell
sprawled across home plate to make it 7-2. A ground out by
Erica Orona scored Chabarria, cutting the lead back to four.

Pecos almost kept it there in the third. Quiroz threw out
Cassandra Ortiz trying to steal after her leadoff hit in the
third, and Kaci Galvan lined to center field. Pitcher Alexa
Marquez then got Fuentes to ground to third, but Chavarria's
throw was just over Heather Uptergrove's glove for an error,
opening the gates for the Prowlers.

Marquez walked the next two batters, then saw Robledo triple
home three runs, making it 10-7. She scored on Amanda
Garrison's double and Garrison came home on an RBI single by
Lockhart.

Chabarria had problems with a couple of grounders in the
fourth, when the Prowlers added three runs for a 16-2 lead.
Carrillo then got two quick outs in the fifth, before
hitting Valerie Gonzales. Quiroz followed with her second
hit of the game, and walks to Uptergrove and Marquez, along
with two passed balls by Robledo, cut the lead to 11 before
the Prowlers were finally able to end the game.

The Eagles' loss left them at 0-6 in District 4-4A and 1-12
on the season, while Fort Stockton improved to 4-2 and
10-10. Thursday's games were moved from Martinez Field to
Maxey Park in order to have lights for the junior varsity
game, which followed the Eagles-Prowlers varsity matchup.

The Eagles will be taking a long Tuesday afternoon road trip
to Sweetwater to face the Mustangs in their next game, then
return home on Thursday to face San Angelo Lake View.



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Pecos Enterprise
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