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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
JH squads earn medals at district track meet
The Pecos Eagles junior high track teams came up with a fourth place finish in the eighth grade boys’ team standings, along with a fifth, sixth and seventh places in the seventh and eighth grade girls and seventh grade boys divisions, at the District 3-3A track meet on Saturday in Monahans.
The host Loboes won three of the four divisions, with Lamesa taking the seventh grade boys’ title. Pecos did not have a first place finisher in any event on Saturday, but the eighth grade boys did have several second and third place finishes as part of their 71-point total.
Robert Herrera threw 41-feet-9 1/2 to place second in the shot put, while Tanner Cude was second in the pole value with a 10-foot jump, and Chris Martinez was third in the boys’ discus, with a 110-foot throw. Westin Grant also placed fourth in the pole vault for the Eagles, while in the running events. Pecos got third place finishes from Edward Rodriguez in both the 1600 and 2400 meter runs, and from Maurice Johnson in the 400 meter dash, along with the 1600 meter relay team.
Johnson also took fifth in the 200 meters, while Stephen Apolinar was fourth in the 2400 meter and sixth in the 800 meter run; Alex Dominguez was fourth in the 110 meter hurdles and fifth in the 300 meter hurdles, and the Eagles also took sixth in the 800 meter relay.
The eighth grade girls ended up with 46 points, and picked up one second place medal, from 1600 meter relay team of Trina Morales, Brittany Quintana, Diahnn Alvarez and Allyson Salcido. Morales also placed third in the 2400 meter run, at 10:00.81,while Quintana was third in the 200 meter dash and sixth in the triple jump.
The girls’ other medal came from a third by Olivia Castilleja in the 300 meter hurdles, with Alvarez fourth. Alvarez also placed sixth in the 800 meter run, while Salcido was fourth in the 100 meter hurdles and fifth in the long jump for the other points for the eighth graders.
The seventh grade girls picked up 35 points and three medals; a second by Kayla Natividad in the 1600 meter run, with a 6:38.81 time, and thirds by Destiny Simmons in the shot put, with a 28-foot-3 1/2 throw, and Conner Armstrong in the high jump, at 4-foot-2. The other points for Pecos came from a fourth by Natividad in the 2400 meters, a fourth by the 1600 meter relay team, and sixths from Krystal Ramirez in the shot put and Becky Benitez in the 400 meter dash.
The seventh graders managed only six points in the boys’ division, from a trio of fifth place finishes. Bryan Levario was fifth in the 300 meter hurdles and Zack Rayos was fifth in the 2400 meter run.
The seven 3-3A high school teams will be in Pecos this Friday for their district track meet. It will start with field events at 9 a.m., followed by the running preliminaries at 1 p.m. and the running finals, starting at 6 p.m.
Eagles get win after nightmare start
It only took the Pecos Eagles one inning to wrap up as many gift runs for the Fort Stockton Panthers Friday night in Fort Stockton as it took them seven innings to do last month, in their District 3-3A opening loss to the Panthers.
But that left the Eagles with six innings to make up for five first inning errors, which led to five unearned runs for the Panthers. And after a slow start, Pecos finally came alive at bat in the final innings, and took advantage of Fort Stockton’s own defensive troubles to score 14 times in their final three at-bats, as they rallied for a 16-5 victory.
“I was proud of the way the kids came back,” said coach Elias Payan, though he had a few different things to say both during and after the first inning debacle.
“I called time-out and gave them a good ripping on the mound, and at the end of the inning I chewed their butts out in the dugout, and then we finally got going,” he said.
Fort Stockton pitcher Bryant Arcides made Pecos pay for their errors last month, that brought in five unearned runs in a 6-1 Panther win. He shut the Eagles down, mainly on a series of fly balls hit into a strong wind that made things easy for his outfielders. But for much of Friday night, Fort Stockton’s outfielders had all kinds of problems with the fly balls hit by Pecos.
Fort Stockton turned a double play in the first inning and almost turned another in the second. Isaiah Rayos just beat the throw to first to keep the inning alive, and Chris Garnto followed with a triple that got past centerfield J.J. Hickman and leftfielder Billy Brookshire, allowing Rayos to score. Pecos got another run on an error by Alfredo Aggredano on Jonathan Garcia’s grounder to short, and an error by Aggredano with two outs in the fifth on a John Paul Salcido grounder would open the gates for Pecos to take the lead.
Eddie Vela and Josh Anchondo doubled over the head of rightfielder Mikey Cordero to cut Fort Stockton’s lead to 5-4, and after a walk to Jose Chavez, Kenny Rayos tied the game by blooping a single in front of Brookshire. The Panthers’ outfielder then let Edward Valencia’s go-ahead single get past him, and Rayos scored to give the Eagles a 7-5 lead.
In the sixth, Garnto would get one by Cordero down the line in left, and wound up following up his earlier triple with an inside the part home run, for an 8-5 Eagles lead. Then in the seventh, against relievers M.J. Salmon and Justin Fuentes, the first eight Pecos batters reached base safely, beginning with a dropped fly ball by Cordero that allowed Chavez to reach base.
He scored after a Kenny Rayos walk when Valencia doubled to left field. Isaiah Rayos then singled home both runners to make it 11-5 and went to third when the ball got past Hickman. He scored when Garnto blooped a single in front of Cordero, and after Salmon then hit Garcia with a pitch, Fuentes came on in relief. He loaded the bases by walking Salcido, before Vela singled two more runs home to make it 14-5. A double-steal by Vela and Salcido scored the 15th run, and after Fuentes got Anchondo for the first out, Chavez closed out the scoring with a single to center field.
Payan said while there were some errors by the Panthers in the outfield, most of the balls hit by the Eagles were just out of reach.
“It’s a big outfield, and we hit the ball hard in the gap and we hit a couple of balls over their heads,” he said. “Isaiah hit one ball hard to center that got by the centerfielder, but Chris’ ball was one-hop off the fence, and on a couple of others, they dove for it and missed it. They tried to make some good plays, instead of playing it safe.”
Anchondo came on in the fifth inning to get the save, after Valencia pitched the first four innings. He allowed only two hits in the first inning, when Fort Stockton sent nine batters to the plate, but errors at short, second and third by Isaiah Rayos, Chavez and Anchondo made it 1-0 before Salmon blooped a single to center, and Calderon was able to score from second base.
With two outs, Aggredano singled home Octavio Contreras to make it 3-0, and two more runs came in when Brookshire’s grounder got past Kenny Rayos at first, for the fourth error of the inning. Error No. 5, a bad pickoff throw by Valencia, got Brookshire to second, but the Eagle pitcher got Adrian Olivas to ground out to Rayos at first to finally end the inning.
Anchondo had to work out of a jam in the sixth, when Fort Stockton got the tying run to the plate with none out on a double by Rene Corral and a passed ball third strike on Aggredano. But he came back to strike out Brookshire, Olivas and Arcides to end the inning, and had an 11-run cushion by the time he went back to the mound in the seventh.
“They didn’t hit Edward very hard after we booted the ball in the first inning, but Edward said he felt a little tired, and didn’t look as well as he should as far as energy goes. So I put Josh in and he did a good job,” Payan said.
The win broke the tie for fourth place between Pecos and Fort Stockton, and moved the Eagles into a tie for third with Monahans, both with 4-3 district records after the Loboes lost on Friday to Presidio, 6-2. Fort Stockton is now 3-4 in district play.
While the Eagles were looking to avenge their first half loss to the Panthers, the Loboes will really be looking for revenge on Tuesday, when they come into Pecos. The Eagles scored 12 times in their first three at bats and 12 more in the fourth inning last month in Monahans, in a 24-5 victory over the Loboes.
“It’s going to be a big ballgame. We’re tied for third with Monahans and they remember that 24-5 game,” said Payan, who planned to start Vela on the mound Tuesday. “They’re going to be ready for us, just like we are.”
Girls add to lead in 3-3A district golf
The Pecos Eagles got through both the wind and the home course of their closest pursuer unscathed on Thursday, as they widened their lead after the second round of the three-round District 3-3A girls golf tournament.
With a 15-stroke lead over Monahans going into Thursday’s round at the Ward County Golf Course, the Eagles were the only team to have all their golfers break 100 in the high winds, and added nine more strokes to their lead. Pecos shot a 367 and is at 723 through 36 holes, while Monahans had a 376 and is 24 shots behind, with a 747 total.
“The wind conditions were really tough,” said Eagles’ coach Tina Doan. “Or girls were trying mostly to fight the wind, which was gusting up to 45-50 mph.”
“It picked up when we started teeing off. We started at 10 a.m. and got in a few holes before the big gusts, but by 12 o’clock it was 45-50 mph.” She said. “Overall we battled it well. Some of the scores were up, but some of them even cut their scores.”
Stephanie Galindo and Rica Pino both were able to cut their scores from the opening round in Seminole on March 27, despite the windy conditions. Pino improved by 12 strokes, shooting a 93 and is at 198 for the tournament, while Galindo dropped from a 100 to a 98 on Thursday, and is also at 198 through two rounds.
Shelly Martinez, who shot an opening round 75, saw her score jump to 87 on Thursday, but that was still the best round of the day by one stroke over Monahans’ Paige Shaw, and she holds a 13 stroke lead over the Loboes’ golfer in the race for medalist, with a 162 score. The Eagles’ other two golfers, Eleanor Mason and Carolina Briones, shot 93 and 94 respectively, and both are at 184 through 36 holes.
“Shelly’s still leading the medalist race, and the girl from Monahans is second and another Monahans girl is third. Eleanor and Carolina are tied for fourth, and both have a chance to get into the Top 3,” Doan said.
The wind did cause the scores of the Eagles’ three individual golfers to go up a little on Thursday. Evelyn Flores shot a 107 after an opening round of 99 and is at 206 overall, Kayla Natividad shot a 112 and is at 222 and Samantha Sparkman had a 116 and is at 228 going into the final round of play, on Wednesday in Lamesa.
While the Eagles increased their lead over the Loboes by nine shots, Monahans widened their lead for the second place regional berth by 18 strokes over third place Lamesa. The Tornadoes shot a 394 and are at 794 going into the final round on their home course. Seminole had the next best round on Thursday, with a 413, but are still 11 strokes behind Monahans ‘B’ at 833. The Loboes’ ‘B’ team had a 418 score, while Greenwood shot a 532 and is at 1039 through 36 holes.
“We’re in good shape. We survived the wind and weather and played hard,” Doan said. “We’ve got one more district round and hopefully we’ll have good weather for that one and can finish first, and then see if we can do something at regionals.”
Pecos’ boys wrapped up the final round of their 36-hole District 3-3A tournament on Monday in Fort Stockton. No scores were available at press time, but the Eagles were in seventh place after 36 holes, with Monahans is first and Lamesa and Fort Stockton battling for the runner-up regional tournament berth.
Fort Stockton holds off Pecos’ 7th inning comeback, 3-2
The Pecos Eagles came within 10 feet of beating the Fort Stockton Prowlers, in the teams’ second District 3-3A game of the season on Friday evening in Pecos. But while the Eagles lost a chance to tie the Prowlers for second place in the district standings, they didn’t lose ground in the race for the final 3-3A playoff berth.
Lupita Leyva caught Amalie Herrera’s fly ball down the left field line 10 feet in front of the outfield fence, with two out and Jenny Palomino on second base in the bottom of the seventh inning, to preserve Fort Stockton’s 3-2 victory. It gave the Prowlers a two-game lead over the Eagles in the district standings with three games to play, but Pecos remained in a tie for third place in district thanks to Seminole’s 3-2 win over Greenwood on Friday.
“Everybody knows she’s a pull hitter,” coach Tammy Walls said of Herrera, who was played down the line by Leyva allowing her to make an easy catch on the ball, which was less than 10 feet from the foul line. “If the wind had been blowing a little bit more, it might have made it out.”
The Eagles actually played better overall against the Prowlers than they did three days earlier, in their 12-inning, 3-2 win over Seminole. But a mental mistake in the second inning and an error in the fifth helped the Prowlers score two of their three runs, and the Eagles weren’t able to take advantage of two consecutive errors by Fort Stockton in the bottom of the second inning, scoring just one time and leaving the bases loaded with one out.
The Eagles got their run without benefit of a hit, and had only one hit until Palomino blooped a two-out single to center in the seventh, scoring Brittany Palomino, who was pinch-running for Hillery Hinojos. She had reached on a one-out error by Heather Garvin at third base, then stole second after second baseman Katherine Cordero caught Bianca Baeza’s pop up in short right field for the second out.
The Prowlers, meanwhile, picked up eight hits off Herrera, but she was able to keep Fort Stockton from having a similar big inning to the one they had last month at home, when they turned a 1-0 Pecos lead after three innings into a 9-4 win. She survived a two-out double by Garvin in the first inning, but in the second Jessica Gonzales reached on an infield hit and Cecila Molinar blooped a single to left with one out.
A wild pitch by Herrera moved the runners to second and third, for Jodi Alvarado, who hit a grounder to Gaby Garcia at second base. Garcia opted to throw home instead of getting the out at first and was late, as Gonzales scored. The play moved Molinar to third, where she was then able to score on Leyva’s grounder to second, with Garcia this time going to first for the put-out.
Fort Stockton made a similar mistake in their half of the inning, along with two other errors. After Molinar walked Jessica Florez to lead off the inning, she tried to throw out courtesy runner Olga Mendoza at second on a bouncer by Claire Weinacht near the mound, but her throw to the bag was late. Savannah Ewing would then force Mendoza at second on a grounder to shortstop Ruby Bernal, before Weinacht stole third base, and Gonzales then dropped a pop up by Vanessa Valeriano when she and Molinar collided.
Cassandra Terrazas followed with a grounder to short that Bernal threw home, trying for a force out on Weinacht, but the ball sailed past catcher Gaby Cordero, allowing her to score. However, Molinar then struck out Hinojos and caught Baeza looking on a 3-2 pitch, to end the inning.
Fort Stockton would make it a 3-1 game in the fifth when Leyva scored on a ground out to short by Garvin, after Valeriano was unable to hold onto her one-out line drive and Bernal followed with a double to right-centerfield. The Eagles were unable to go anything in the third after a two-out single by Florez, and Molinar got Herrera to ground out to Bernal on a 3-2 pitch in the fifth with Baeza on third base, after she was hit by a pitch.
Pecos also failed to take advantage of a two-out error by Bernal on a Ewing grounder in the sixth, while Herrera got out of trouble in the seventh after giving up a single to Alvarado ad walking Leyva with one out, when she picked pinch-runner Chena Vialva off second base and then struck out Bernal to retire the side.
“Amalie did an awesome job. We just make a couple of mistakes behind her,” said Walls. She added that while the team played well.
“I’m at a loss about what we can do about (hitting). We’ve tried just about everything,” she said. The Eagles have managed more than four hits in a game only once in their last seven games, in their 9-7 win two weeks ago at Lamesa.
The loss dropped Pecos to 5-4 in district play and 19-7 overall going into their 5 p.m. Tuesday game against 8-0 Monahans. The Loboes lost a non-district game to Midland Christian on Saturday, 8-2, but beat the Eagles in Monahans last month, 4-0, on Heather Shuler’s one-hitter. The game is the final home contest for Pecos this season.
The Loboes clinched a playoff spot while taking a break from district play on Friday, thanks to the losses by the Eagles and Rangerettes. Because of the their bye date on Thursday and testing early next week, Tuesday’s game will be the last one for Pecos until April 21, when they go to Greenwood.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2003-04 by Pecos Enterprise
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