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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, July 7, 1999
Pecos teams stay alive with road victories
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, July 7, 1999 -- The "Anyplace-but-Pecos Tour" continued its successful
run for Pecos' All-Star baseball teams on Tuesday, as both the 9-10 and
11-12 year old teams kept their seasons alive with a pair of out-of-town
victories.
Playing in the loser's bracket of the double-elimination District 4
Tournament, the two teams both scored wins over San Angelo Western on Tuesday.
The 9-10 year olds rallied from a 7-3 deficit with a 10-run fifth inning
in Crane to beat Western by a 13-9 score, while the 11-12 year olds stayed
alive with a 6-2 victory over Western in Big Lake, and will face Crane
in Crane at 6 p.m. today.
Also playing tonight will be Pecos' Junior Leaguers, who won their tournament
opener in Crane against San Angelo Lake View last Saturday, 20-5. They'll
face Tri-County in Christoval at 6 p.m., while Pecos' Senior League team
will face Tri-County on Thursday in Crane, also at 6 p.m.
Tuesday's games — and five other games over the past five days — were
neutral site contests because District 4 decided that all games between
Pecos and San Angelo teams would be held either in Crane or Big Lake this
season. So far that's worked out fine for Pecos Ï they're 7-0 in those
two towns, while suffering their only tournament losses in their only two
home games, against Sonora and Crane.
The 9-10 year olds dropped an 18-8 decision to Crane on Monday, and
for a while had the same problems in their game against Western. A lack
of hard hits combined with walks and defensive lapses left them five outs
from elimination when Western's defense suddenly fell apart, committing
eight errors in the inning.
After Cody Hernandez grounded out to shortstop Blake McCarthy, Adrian
Solis reached on an error by the shortstop and scored when third baseman
Zachary McCormick threw away Markey Sotelo's grounder. A walk by pitcher
Preston Mendoza to Chris Garnto followed and then Isiah Rayos singled home
Sotelo, with Garnto scoring as center fielder Ethan Reed misplayed the
ball.
Pecos then tied the game when McCormick threw away John Paul Salcido's
grounder and took the lead when Reed dropped Gerald Saenz' fly ball. Boni
Garcia then blooped a single to center, and Saenz scored when McCormick
couldn't field Robert Nunez' hard grounder. Hernandez then grounded to
McCarthy for the second time in the inning, but he dropped the ball while
trying to tag out Nunez, as Garcia scored.
Solis followed with an RBI single that chased Mendoza from the mound,
but when McCormick came on an got Sotelo to ground to shortstop, Western
forgot how many outs there were, as both Hernandez and Solis came around
to score the ninth and 10th runs of the inning.
Meanwhile, Nunez went the distance, surviving some control problems
and some mental errors on the infield to get the win.
He struck out the side in the first inning, but allowed three runs in
the second and four in the third. Two walks and a Jonathan McClellan triple
cost Nunez in the second inning, as it scored two runs, while McClellan
doubled home two more in the fourth, after three walks, an error and a
late throw home by Nunez on a McCarthy squeeze bunt gave Western a 5-3
lead.
Nunez would walk in a run in the fifth before getting out of a jam,
and wild pitched one home in the sixth before striking out Chad Meeks and
Andrew Terry to end the game.
"We can still play a lot better than we did today," said manager Jesse
Rayos. "(Hitting is) what we need right now. We're just in one of those
slumps right now."
The 9-10 year olds will now wait to see who their opponent on Thursday
will be. Pecos will either play at home against Ballinger or back in Crane
against San Angelo Northern, starting at 6 p.m.
Pecos' Little Leaguers will be playing their third game in as many nights
when they face Crane this evening, while the Junior League's game tonight
will be only their second of the 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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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