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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, July 8, 1999
LLers stay alive, Juniors drop first game
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
CRANE, July 8, 1999 -- The road win streak for Pecos' youth baseball
teams ended at eight on Wednesday, but so far all four teams remain alive
in their District 4 tournaments.
Pecos' Little League All-Stars needed a victory in Crane on Wednesday
to remain in the 11-12 year old double elimination tournament and got it,
shutting out the host Cranes by a 7-0 final score.
Pecos' Junior League All-Stars needed a win to reach the tournament
semifinals, but after a couple of detours and a rain delay they came up
short, as Tri-County beat the 13-14 year olds by a 10-5 final score.
That sends the Junior Leaguers into a 6 p.m. loser's bracket semifinal
game today at Sonora, with Pecos needing a win to stay alive and four wins
over the next six days to take the tournament title.
Also in need of a victory to remain in the tournament tonight is Pecos'
9-10 year old All-Star squad. They rallied on Tuesday to beat San Angelo
Western in Crane, and will face San Angelo Northern in Big Lake tonight,
starting at 6 p.m.
The Senior League is the only unbeaten team left for Pecos, having beating
San Angelo Western and San Angelo Lake View last week by 15-1 and 25-0
scores. Tonight, they'll go for a berth in the tournament finals when they
face Tri-County in a 6 p.m. start at the Crane High School baseball field.
The 11-12 year olds get today off after their victory, and will face
North Concho at 6 p.m. on Friday in an elimination round game at Carlsbad.
It will be the fourth elimination game for Pecos in five days after their
opening round loss to Sonora last Friday.
"We're playing a lot better now than we did last week," said coach Pete
Garcia, after the Little Leaguers scored seven times in the first two innings,
then used the nine-strikeout pitching on Joshua Anchondo to shut down Crane.
Anchondo had pitched Pecos to an eight-inning, 2-1 victory over San
Angelo Southern at Big Lake on Monday and only allowed a runner past second
base once in Wednesday's victory.
He also drove in the game's first run, singling off pitcher Jake Caldwell
after Jared Grubbs reached on an error and Ricky Natividad walked to lead
off the first inning. One out later, Eddie Vela's single to left scored
Natividad for a 2-0 lead.
In the second, both Frankie Tapia and Joseph Lujan walked on 3-2 pitches
to open the inning. Grubbs then grounded to second baseman Manuel Fox,
who missed a tag on Lujan and found no one covering second base to take
his throw. That allowed Tapia to score and a few moments later a bad throw
back to the mound by catcher Garrett McNeese brought Lujan home for a 4-0
lead.
Natividad then singled home Grubbs, and after Anchondo singled and Adrian
Barreno struck out, Vela collected his second RBI single to make it 6-0.
Pecos' final run game after a Thomas Paz single, when a passed ball by
McNeese on a Jonathan Garcia strikeout allowed Anchondo to score.
Anchondo didn't allow a hit until Steven Galindo singled with two outs
in the fourth. He allowed two walks in the fifth inning and a Brandon Smith
double to lead off the sixth, but each time was able to shut Crane's batters
down to preserve the shutout.
No details were available on the Junior Leaguer's loss, but Little League
president Tony Aguilar said the team was first directed to the wrong field
at Christoval, then told the game would be played 20 miles away in Wall.
"They got to the field at about 6 o'clock and got 30 minutes to warm
up," Aguilar said. "They game started at 6:30 and then at 6:45 they had
a rain delay."
Pecos held a 4-2 lead when the rains hit, but after play resumed shortly
before 8 p.m. they were shut down by Tri-County the rest of the way.
"I talked to the umpire, and he said they just didn't get into the game.
They didn't hit the ball and Tri-County did," Aguilar said.
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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