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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, March 24, 1999
Eagles 2-4A opener almost perfect
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Mar. 24 -- It was an almost-perfect night for the
Pecos Eagles and pitcher Josh Casillas.
Casillas faced one batter over the minimum Tuesday night,
in Pecos' District 2-4A opener against Fabens, and wound up
with a no-hitter, while the rest of the Eagles played their
first errorless game of the season, and used an eight- run
third inning to blow out the Wildcats by an 11-0 score.
"Josh did a good job pitching and had his breaking stuff
working," said Eagles' coach Bubba Williams. Casillas threw
only 45 pitches in retiring 15 of the 16 batters he faced,
allowing only a fourth inning walk to Carlos Sanchez to
spoil his bid for a perfect game.
He finished with eight strikeouts and six fly ball outs,
then ended the game in the fifth under the 10-run rule by
fielding a hot shot from Fabens' Tony Sanchez and throwing
to Pifi Montoya at first base for the final out.
Casillas' effort made things easy for the defense, which
did not allow an earned run for the second straight game,
after errors had plagued Pecos in their first 13 contests.
It was also the Eagles' first shutout of the season.
"I'm not saying all the game are going to be like that, but
the kids went out tonight and played relaxed ball," Williams
said. "Win or lose, we're going to go out and play relaxed
and not worry about making errors."
Fabens had error problems in the early going, allowing
three unearned runs in the first inning. Manny Cadena made a
good play on an Oscar Luna smash to third base, but then
threw low to Juan Quezada at first. Luna then went to second
on a bad pickoff throw by starter Jaime Valenzuela, and
scored on Mark Abila's one out double to left-center field.
One out later, John Gutierrez doubled him home, and after
Luis Salgado reached on Cadena's second error of the inning,
Kevin Bates blooped a single to left-center, scoring
Gutierrez.
Salgado got caught off second base on the hit to end the
inning, and baserunning was really the only problem the
Eagles had Tuesday. Fabens would get a double play in the
second inning when Jeff Martinez was ruled to have
interfered with Carlos Sanchez at second base, and Ricky
Herrera lost a bloop hit when Salgado didn't get far enough
off second base and was thrown out at third.
By then, the Eagles had a 6-0 lead on Gutierrez' second
double of the game, a bases-clearing shot down the line in
left. He scored on Herrera's bloop, and then Kevin Bates,
whose sacrifice bunt was bobbled by Valenzuela, came in on a
single by Martinez.
That brought Carlos Sanchez on to pitch, but Luna greeted
him with a two-run double for a 10-0 lead. After Mason Abila
walked and Mark Abila was hit by a pitch, Casillas got the
final run of the night, scoring Luna on a sacrifice fly.
The win lifted Pecos to a 9-5-1 record going into their
district road opener on Saturday afternoon at El Paso
Mountain View. Fabens fell to 5-7-1 with the loss.
Mountain View dropped their district opener on Tuesday to
San Elizario by a 10-6 final score, while Clint beat
Canutillo in Tuesday's other 2-4A game, 10-7. Pecos' junior
varsity also came out winners on Tuesday, beating Fort
Stockton, 19-5 on the Panthers' home field.
FABENS PECOS
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Blmnte lf 2 0 0 0 Luna cf 3 2 1 2
C.Snchz 2b-p 1 0 0 0 Ma.Abila lf 2 1 1 0
Quezada 1b 2 0 0 0 Mk.Abila c 2 2 1 1
Zavala c 2 0 0 0 Casillas p 2 0 1 1
Alvarez cf 2 0 0 0 Garcia cr 0 1 0 0
Cadena 3b 2 0 0 0 Gutrrez 1b 2 2 2 4
T.Snchz ss 2 0 0 0 Montoya 1b 0 0 0 0
Trevino rf 1 0 0 0 Salgado ss 2 0 1 0
Vlzna p-2b 0 0 0 0 Garcia ss 0 0 0 0
Avelar dh 1 0 0 0 Bates rf 2 1 1 1
Herrera 3b 3 1 1 1
Valencia2b 0 0 0 0
Lara 2b 0 0 0 0
Martinez dh 3 1 2 1
Totals 15 0 0 0 Totals 21 11 11 11
Fabens 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0
Pecos 3 0 8 0 x --11
Game ended in fifth under 10-run rule
E -- Cadena 2, Valenzuela 2. DP -- Fabens 2. LOB -- Fabens
1, Pecos 4. 2B -- Mk. Abila, Gutierrez 2, Luna. S -- Bates.
SF -- Casillas. CS -- Ma. Abila.
IP H R ER BB KO
Muleshoe
Valenzuela (L) 2 1-3 9 10 6 0 1
C. Sanchez 1 2-3 2 1 1 3 0
Pecos
Casillas W 5-1 5 0 0 0 1 0
HBP -- Mk. Abila by C. Sanchez.
WP -- C. Sanchez.
T -- 1:06
Pecos widens lead with 17-3 victory
PECOS, Mar. 24 -- The Pecos Eagles closed out the first half
of the District 2-4A softball schedule by opening some space
between themselves and their other district rivals, thanks
to a 17-3 victory Tuesday afternoon in San Elizario.
"That's probably the best we've hit all year from top to
bottom of the lineup," said Eagles' coach Tammy Walls, whose
team now owns a two-game lead in the loss column over both
San Elizario and Clint with five games to play.
The Eagles scored five times in the first and added five
more runs in the third before San Elizario got on the
scoreboard, then added seven runs in the fifth and ended the
game under the 10-run rule, after the host Eagles had cut
the gap to 10-3.
"They only got three hits off us and we got five
strikeouts," Walls said. Pitcher Alexa Marquez improved her
record in district to 5-0 and her overall mark to 8-4 with
her three-hitter, after allowing 28 hits in the Eagles' two
games last week.
Marquez walked the first three batters she faced, but came
back to retire the next three batters to keep San Elizario
scoreless. "She settled down and got her pitches in the
strike zone where she wanted them," said Walls. "The three
hits they got were off the change-up. ... Once she stopped
throwing that and went with her dropball, they stopped
hitting."
Walls said Becky Wein had a ground rule double and went
4-for-4, and Marquez and Kathy Maldonado also had four hits
in the victory. Myra Gomez added two doubles and threw out a
runner at second trying to stretch a single down the left
field line into a double.
San Elizario fell to 3-2 in district and 8-5-1 on the
season, while The Eagles improved to 5-0 and 8-5 overall.
They'll open the second half of their District 2-4A schedule
at home Saturday against El Paso Mountain View, which fell
three games behind Pecos in the loss column on Tuesday when
they were routed by Clint, 36-7. Fabens beat Canutillo,
22-12, in Tuesday's other district game.
Eagle golfers get looks at tournament site
PECOS, Mar. 24 -- The Pecos Eagle girls got a look at one of
their other District 2-4A golf course this past weekend, in
their final competition before district play, while the boys
will be getting their first look at Vista Hills in El Paso
this Saturday, after playing their final pre-district
tournament last weekend in Fort Stockton.
The girls placed sixth at Vista Hills in El Paso with a 764
score for the two-day tournament. Andrews shot a 705 to take
the tournament title by 26 strokes over Roswell Goddard,
with El Paso Coronado and Alamogordo tied for third with
752s.
"We let Coronado get ahead of us after the first round, but
they had the home course advantage, and Alamogordo was only
two strokes behind us after the first round," coach Tina
Hendrick said. The Eagles shot a 387 on Friday and a 377
Saturday, while Coronado cut their opening 394 total by 36
strokes and Alamogordo shot a 364 on Saturday.
Carlsbad also finished ahead of Pecos at 756, while there
was a big gap between the Eagles and seventh place Roswell,
which shot an 840. The only District 2-4A rival in the
tournament, Clint, shot a 968, while El Paso Andress shot a
940 and El Paso Montwood had a 981 to round out the field.
Hendrick said the biggest thing was for the Eagles to get a
look at the course where they would play the final round of
the 36-hole District 2-4A Tournament, on April 12. "It just
takes a little getting used to the course. The greens are
very fast and the kids had to get use to them," she said.
Sarah Armstrong had the low round for Pecos, shooting a
90-94-184, while Alva Alvarez shot a 95-93-188. Amanda
Stickels shot 98s both days for a 196 total, while Salem
Mitchell shot a 104-92-196 and Cassie Foster shot a 92 on
Saturday after withdrawing Friday due to illness.
"Putting hurt us, but maybe from playing the course the kids
will be able to go back and do better in district," Hendrick
said. The first round of the 2-4A tournament is April 10 in
Pecos.
The tournament days are the same for the Eagle boys, who
finished 13th in Fort Stockton, with a 339-342-681 total.
Andrews shot a 309-297-606 to place first, 14 strokes up on
another former District 4-4A rival, San Angelo Lake View,
and 15 up on Sweetwater.
"Both rounds were under 350, so we're getting better," coach
Kim Anderson said. "We've worked real hard on our short game
this week, and hopefully by the time we get to Bentwood (in
San Angelo, for the Region I-4A tournament) we'll be ready."
Lee Lyles shot a 79 on Saturday after an opening 82 to
finish with a 161 score, while John Salcido shot an
88-83-171 and Casey Love also shot a 171, with rounds of 82
and 89. John Granado shot an 87-91-178 and Dallas Jarrett
shot a 95-92-187 for the Eagles' other scores.
While neither Pecos team has another tournament scheduled
before district, Anderson said his boys would travel to El
Paso this week to play Vista Hills, "so we can get an idea
of what the course is like." Hendrick said she hoped to get
a triangular meet set up with Fort Stockton and Monahans
before the district tournament.
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 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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