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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
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Sports

Tuesday, September 8 ,1998

Bears' fast start chases Coyotes, 58-8


PECOS, Sept. 8 -- The Balmorhea Bears are hoping the rest of
their 1½-month long road trip to start the 1998 football
season goes as well as Friday's game against Tatum Coyotes
did.

The Bears, who had to rally twice early last year in
Balmorhea against Tatum before breaking things open, took it
right to the Coyotes on their home field Friday, jumping
ahead 22-0 in the first quarter, then scoring three more
touchdowns in the final 90 seconds of the first half on the
way to a 58-8 victory in their season-opening game.

Four players who scored in Balmorhea's 59-14 win over Tatum
last year -- Arturo Miranda, Roger Lopez, Billy Lozano and
Travis Woodruff -- found the end zone again on Friday, and
were joined by a couple of new faces as well.

Miranda had a 10-yard touchdown run in the opening period
and scored from 20 yards out midway through the third
quarter. Lopez got the Bears' first touchdown, on a 55-yard
run after Balmorhea took a 2-0 lead with a safety just a
minute into play. Lozano added a nine-yard TD run late in
the quarter while Woodruff had a pair of touchdown catches
in the second period, a 53-yarder from Miranda with 1:08
left in the half and one from quarterback Matthew Sanchez
from 16 yards out as time expired.

In between, the Bears added another score, when Miranda
hooked up with Felipe Morales on a 30-yarder after the Bears
took advantage of a Coyote turnover. Sanchez would later
hook up with Jouse Mendoza on a 6-yard TD pass that ended
the game under the 45-point rule with 4:07 left in the third
period, and Erickson used three different kickers, Lopez,
Miranda and Chris Cook, to hit four of seven conversion
tries on the night.

Tatum's lone score was a 60-yard run by Josh Graham, with
Eric Garcia adding the two point conversion as time expired
in the first quarter. The loss dropped Tatum to 1-1 on the
season.

Balmorhea improved to 1-0 and will have this week off before
going to El Paso on Sept. 18 to face Faith Christian, which
lost its opener on Friday to Sanderson, 49-12.

Pecos gets win, loses scheduled matches


PECOS, Sept. 8 -- The Pecos Eagles' tennis team got in a lot
of play this past Thursday in Monahans, though they won't
get in any today as scheduled up in Odessa.

Eagles' coach Bernadette Ornelas said this afternoon's match
against Odessa High has been canceled, the second time this
year the Bronchos have backed out of a home match with
Pecos. "They said they don't have enough players right now,"
Ornelas said this morning.

On Thursday, the Eagles were the ones short a few players,
when they edged Monahans by an 11-10 score. "We played their
entire varsity boys section, and then we played their 1-6
girls in doubles, and their 7-12 girls in singles," Ornelas
said. "We had to play a lot of players twice due to the
football (Thursday night in Odessa). A lot of my players
were in band or cheerleading, and there were some flag
girls, too."

Mark Marquez won in both singles and doubles play on the
boys' side, teaming with Jonathan Fuentes for the doubles
victory, while Jeff Lam and Alan Fleming won in singles play
and Casey Love won a pair of singles matches at No. 6 and 7
seed.

The girls lost their doubles matches, but got singles wins
from Teresa Minjarez, Vanessa Miranda, and Robin Matthews,
while Rachel Pharoah won a pair of matches in singles play.

"Overall the kids came through for us," said Ornelas, whose
team will next be in action on Saturday, when they travel to
San Angelo for a dual meet against Lake View and Central.

Pecos (11) at Monahans (10)
Boys Singles
Jonathan Fuentes lost to Daniel Fuentes, 6-3, 6-3; Mark
Marquez defeated Curtis Gibson, 6-2, 7-6; Tye Graham lost to
Aashish Chopra, 6-4, 7-5; Jeff Lam defeated Nick Ledingham,
7-5, 7-6; Alan Fleming defeated J. Oscar Patino, 6-4, 6-1;
Casey Love defeated Aaron Sanders, 6-1, 6-3; Love defeated
Jacon, 8-5.

Girls Singles
Teresa Minjarez defeated Crystal Passmore, 7-5, 6-3; Vanessa
Miranda defeated Tarah Oliver, 6-1, 7-5; Rachel Pharoah
defeated Crystal Smith, 6-3, 6-2; Tiffany Jarrett lost by
default to Prairie Chamberlain, 3-0 (reitred); Lorrie
Minjarez lost to Kristen Hall, 6-1; Robin Matthews defeated
Angela Stafford, 6-0, 6-3; Abigail Garza lost to Liveley,
8-0; Garza lost to Hernandez, 8-1; Pharoah defeated Uechi,
8-2.

Boys Doubles
Graham and Lam lost to Fuentes and Gibson, 6-3, 6-3; Fuentes
and Marquez defeated Chopra and B. Hawkins, 6-2, 6-1; Love
and Fleming lost to Reyes and J. Hawkins, 6-4, 6-1.

Girls Doubles
T. Mijarez and Matthews lost to Baker and Molinar, 6-1, 6-3;
Pharoah and Miranda lost to Shawn and Amstrong, 6-1, 6-1;
Jarrett and L. Minjarez lost to Covensky and Gartzai, 6-0,
6-1.

Eagles seek to rebound from losses


PECOS, Sept. 8 -- The Labor Day holiday began a little
earlier than planned for the Pecos Eagles over weekend at
the Seminole Invitational, but they'll try to get things
back together tonight in Odessa against the Permian
Panthers.

The Eagles avenged their Tuesday loss to Odessa High in pool
round play of the Maidens' volleyball tournament, beating
the Bronchos 15-14, 15-10. Pecos then jumped out to an early
lead on Seminole, only to lose by 15-7, 15-12 scores. They
then were beaten by Amarillo River Road to fall into the
tournament's consolation bracket, where they were swept on
Saturday by Lubbock Estacado, 15-3, 15-4.

"Shaye (Lara) and Julie (Lujan) missed the van on Saturday,
so we had to go with a completely different rotation, and I
think that's what hurt us the most," said Eagles' coach
Becky Granado. "But we just weren't mentally ready to play.
We couldn't get anything going.

"Against Seminole we had the lead in both games, and just
stopped playing," she said. "Against River Road it was the
same. We were just out there and didn't put any offense
together. We couldn't pass the ball and when we did, we
couldn't get anybody to kill it."

Hereford ended up winning the tournament, 5-15,15-11, 16-14
over Lubbock Coronado, while Midland High downed Pampa for
third place, 15-8, 16-14. Pecos' ex-district rival San
Angelo Lake View won fifth place, beating Seminole and River
Road after losing to Coronado.

The loss to Estacado was the third straight for the Eagles
(Friday's pool matches don't count in their overall record),
going into their first regular season meeting with Permian
this year. The teams did scrimmage in early August.

The Panthers are 6-6 on the season, after downing San Angelo
Central on Saturday, 15-10, 15-12, to win fifth place at the
El Paso Socorro Invitational.

McGwire takes shot at HR record


By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS, Sept. 8 -- As Mark McGwire circled the bases,
following a path taken by only one player before him, Gary
Gaetti was transfixed at third base.

Earlier in the season, the two were teammates with the St.
Louis Cardinals, so Gaetti was hardly surprised when the
power lurking within Big Mac's gargantuan biceps showed
itself for the 61st time this season.

Still, the enormity of watching McGwire pull even with
Roger Maris' home run record managed to overwhelm even those
who've witnessed this astonishing spectacle from the inner
circle of history.

``It's like the last out in the seventh game of the World
Series. It's almost like it's unreal, even though it's
happening right before your eyes,'' said Gaetti, who was
playing third base for the Chicago Cubs on Monday when
McGwire gave new meaning to the M&M Boys. ``It's a really
strange feeling.''

McGwire needed only 144 games to surpass Babe Ruth's 60
homers in 1927 and equal Maris' mark from 1961. Both of
McGwire's predecessors in Power Inc. waited until their
final games -- Ruth played when the schedule was 154 games,
Maris under the current 162-game era -- to hit their
landmark homers.

With 19 games to go, no one is questioning whether McGwire
will break the record. The only concern is when it's going
to happen -- the Cardinals play the Cubs again tonight at
Busch Stadium -- and how many he might hit before he's done.

Will it be 65? Perhaps 68? Or a nice, round number like 70,
as McGwire himself has joked about?

``Nobody can put an asterisk on it,'' McGwire said,
alluding to the fate that befell Maris when he broke Ruth's
revered record while playing eight additional games.

On the same field where Maris played his final game in
1968, McGwire's sense of timing was impeccable, as usual. He
had his son in the dugout, his father in the stands on his
61st birthday, his biggest rival applauding the moment from
right field.

``I've hit 61, Mark. I don't know why you shouldn't be able
to do it,'' John McGwire told his son when the two had
dinner the night before.

It didn't take long. In the first inning, McGwire launched
Mike Morgan's fastball inside the left-field foul pole, the
ball slamming off the third-deck facade some 430 feet away,
setting off a wild scene below when it deflected back into
the crowd.

``The look on his face is what I'll remember,'' said
Chicago catcher Scott Servais, who had the closest view of
history. ``The intensity of that first at-bat, then the
relief when he hit it out.''

McGwire got a high five from Cubs first baseman Mark Grace
as he rounded the bag, another from Gaetti as he approached
third. Out in right field, Chicago's Sammy Sosa, whose 58
home runs have pushed McGwire down the stretch like Mickey
Mantle did for Maris 37 years ago, joined the tribute by
slapping his right hand against his glove.

Waiting at home plate was McGwire's 10-year-old batboy son,
Matt, who had arrived from California only minutes before
Dad made history. The slugger hoisted the youngster in his
massive arms and gave him a bear hug.

``When he grabbed his son, that was a great moment,'' said
Servais, who has three children himself. ``Anyone who has
kids knows what it's like to go play ball with your kids.''

The Cardinals spilled out of the dugout to mob McGwire, and
it took him a few moments to make it to the bench. But he
didn't stay there long, springing back out to salute his
father, Sosa and the Maris family, watching from seats on
the first-base side.

``He tapped his heart, like Dad was in his heart,'' said
Kevin Maris, a son of the former New York Yankees slugger.

Maris played the final game of his major league career for
the Cardinals in the 1968 World Series, a pitiable figure
who never again approached 61 homers and failed to receive
the hero treatment enjoyed by both Ruth and McGwire during
their slugging summers.

Maris' accomplishment was forever called into question by
commissioner Ford Frick, who declared in 1961 that any
record would have to carry a ``distinctive mark'' if it did
not beat Ruth's mark of 60 in 154 games.



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