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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
PHS helmet fittings next week
Helmet fittings for Pecos Eagle varsity, junior varsity and freshmen football players will begin next Monday, July 23, at the Pecos High School Field House.
Trainer Joel Birch said players will be fitted for helmets mornings from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and afternoons from 1 to 5:30 p.m. next week. Pre-season practice for all three Eagle football teams will start on Monday, Aug. 6.
All PHS students planning to participate in late summer-fall athletics need to have their physical forms filled out and returned before the start of pre-season workouts in early August if they have not already done so.
Along with football, preseason workouts for volleyball, tennis, cross-country track and swimming, will get underway three weeks from now. No player will be allowed to participate in workouts without a completed physical form signed by a doctor and returned to their coaches. Forms are available either at the Pecos High School field house, or from local doctors.
Lubbock, EP end 11-12 LLers’ season
The Pecos Little League All-Stars had a strong start, but a rough finish to the 11-12 year old Section 1 Tournament over the weekend in Lubbock.
Pecos used a six-hitter by Brandon Garnto to shut out Dumas on Thursday night in their opening tournament game at the Lubbock Western Little League Complex, winning by a 3-0 score, but were then blasted by the host team in the tournament semifinals on Saturday night, 32-0.
That put Pecos into an elimination game on Sunday night against El Paso Frank Manning, and the Little Leaguers saw El Paso pull away in the middle innings to score a 7-3 victory.
Garnto struck out 11 in Thursday’s win, and made a 1-0 lead stand up through five innings against Dumas pitcher Nathan Thomas. But when he reached the 75-pitch count limit after five innings and was replaced by E.J. Chavez, Garnto opened the inning with a single and Michael Carrasco followed with a two-run homer, to give Garnto some breathing room in the bottom of the inning, when Dumas got the tying run to the plate with one away.
Saturday’s game went downhill early for Pecos, as four of Lubbock Western’s first 11 batters hit home runs, including two by Garrett Williams, a two-run shot after a leadoff single by pitcher Steve Smith off starter Abel Dominguez, and a three-run shot later in the inning off reliever Geronimo Ornelas. He would hit a third homer later in the game, while Brandon Arredondo homered after Williams’ first shot, and Zane Ansel would also homer, after Dominguez recorded his only out, getting Tyler Thorp on a grounder to second base.
Ornelas would leave after getting the first out in the second inning, to avoid exceeding the 21-pitch limit that would have made him ineligible to pitch on Sunday. He gave way to Zack Johnson, who allowed two runs in the fifth before Lubbock exploded for 21 runs in the next two innings. Garnto came back to start Sunday’s game, but was outdueled by El Paso’s O’Brien Alvidrez. A two-run fourth and a two-run fifth by Frank Manning off Garnto and reliever Zack Johnson broke the game open, and sent El Paso into Monday night’s title game against Lubbock Western, which beat El Paso on Thursday night by a 10-0 score.
Ornelas scored two of Pecos’ three runs after being hit by pitches in the first and sixth innings, while Pony Palomino scored Pecos’ other run, in the fifth inning after reaching on a single.
Sectional sweep sends Senior Leaguers to state tourney
The Pecos Senior League All-Stars went through the Section 1 Senior League Baseball Tournament the same way this weekend they had in District 37 play two weeks ago, with an undefeated record in three games, earning them a trip to the West Texas State Tournament in Waco this coming weekend.
Pecos rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat Andrews on Saturday by a 7-5 score and shut out Perryton, 8-0 to earn a bye into Sunday evening’s tournament title game. That ended up being a rematch against Perryton, after they eliminated Andrews following a loss to them on Saturday, but Pecos made sure Perryton wouldn’t avenge their other loss by scoring five times in the second inning and six more times in the third on the way to a 15-1 victory.
Pecos will now face the Section 3 Tournament winner at 12 noon on Friday in the West Texas State Tournament at the State Little League Complex on University Parks Drive in Waco. San Antonio Northwest was playing for the Section 3 title on Monday night against San Angelo-North Concho. “Sometimes they bring it, sometimes they don’t. They brought it today,” said Senior League manager Tony Reyes, Sr. “Defensively we did good against Andrews, but we just didn’t bring our sticks until the very last.”
Both Pecos and Perryton got runners into scoring position in the first inning. J.R. Lujan would strike out Skip Lunley and get Brett Chambers on a pop up after Perryton got runners to second and third with one away, while Jackson Meyer got Tony Reyes on a grounder to short after Pecos had two runners in scoring position with two outs.
Lujan then retired the side in order in the second, while Meyer was greeted by a leadoff double from Lucas Chavez. He scored on a throwing error by Chambers after stealing third base. Pecos then loaded the bases on a walk to Sal Baez, an error by Lunley on a James Garcia grounder to third and Meyer hitting Vela with a pitch. Osber Saenz then singled home two runs, and two outs later Meyer forced home a run by hitting Timo Reyes and walking Tony Reyes, then wild pitched Saenz home for a 5-0 lead.
Perryton got a run back in the third when Willie Richards walked, stole second, and after a wild pitch, scoring on Jesus Vital’s ground out. But Baez and Garcia opened the bottom of the inning with singles, Vela walked and with one away, Jonathan Dominguez made it 7-1 with a bloop single to left-centerfield. Meyer then hit Lujan with a pitch and was replaced on the mound by Carlos Gutierrez, but he was greeted by a Timo Reyes double off the fence in left, and a two-run single by Tony Reyes. Gutierrez would then walk three straight batters to score two more runs, while the inning’s final run came home on a passed ball.
Pecos would add four more runs in the fourth inning, while Lujan allowed only a walk in his final two innings of work, ending the game in the fifth under the 10-run rule.
In their first game on Saturday, against Andrews, Pecos missed several early chances against starter Marquis Huey, while Andrews took advantage of some Pecos defensive lapses to go out to a 3-1 lead after five innings.
Huey would single home Scott Gonzales with two out in the first off Timo Reyes, then worked a double steal with Jake Sanchez. Two innings later, E.T. Valenzuela tripled to right field and then scored when the throw back to Reyes got past the pitcher.
Pecos got an unearned run in the fourth off Huey, as Dominguez walked and went to third on a Garcia single then scored as Garcia stole second, when catcher T.J. Rampone’s throw went into centerfield. Tommy Lee Lloyd then replaced Huey in the fifth, and Pecos capitalized on his control problems.
He walked Chavez and Vela on nine pitches, and then after they moved to second and third on steals, scored on Timo Reyes’ two-run single to tie the game. He then scored the go-ahead run on singles by Saenz and Dominquez.
Tony Reyes then came on to pitch and shut Andrews down in the sixth, while Pecos widened their lead to 7-3 in the top of the seventh on doubles by Lujan and Baez and single by Vela. That allowed Pecos to survive an Andrews rally in the bottom of the seventh, as Gonzales walked and Sanchez doubled. Both would score and Andrews would get the tying runs on base before Travis Yarborough flied out to end the game.
In the second game on Saturday, a double by Garcia in the first inning got Pecos off to a quick lead against Perryton starter Jake Holguin, and the Senior Leaguers would slowly pull away the rest of the game to back the shutout pitching of Vela, who went the distance without going over the league’s new 95-pitch count rule.
“All our pitchers were awesome. They all did a good job,” said Tony Reyes Sr.
Garcia would add a two-run to left in the third inning of game, while Timo Reyes had an RBI single in the fourth and Saenz would score Vela with a ground out in the sixth for Pecos’ final run.
Shutout ends 9-10 year olds’ LLers’ season
The rematch went a lot better for Pecos’ 9-10 year old Little League All-Stars on Saturday evening, when they faced host Midland Northern for the second time in three days on Northern’s home field. But the final result was worse for Pecos, as they were eliminated from the Section 1 tournament by a 3-0 final score.
Midland was beating Pecos with two outs in the final inning on Wednesday by a 14-2 score, when they were forced to forfeit the game due to a violation of the Little League’s new pitch count rule. This time, Midland again jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against pitcher Jay Hinojos, but scored only one more run the rest of the way, while making sure they weren’t caught by any pitch count rules, as a trio of Northern pitchers shut out Pecos on just three hits.
The 9-10 year olds had dropped into the elimination bracket of the tournament on Thursday, falling to El Paso Frank Manning by a 19-3 score. They then fell behind Slaton on Friday night by a 3-0 margin, before fighting back to win in eight innings by an 11-7 score.
Hinojos again had some control problems in his second start against Midland, though not as much as in the first two innings on Wednesday, and Gus Mendoza came on and shut out Northern over the final 2 1/3 innings when Hinojos reached the 75-pitch limit. But Blake Caine and reliever Evan Mata also had better results in their second appearances against Pecos.
Caine, who was touched for two runs in 5 2/3 innings on Wednesday, leaving two pitches after he went past the 75-pitch limit, allowed two hits in three innings, surviving a few control problems of his own in the first inning, before giving away to Mata, who was greeted by a pair of hits on Wednesday, before the forfeit ruling.
“We left the bases loaded in the first inning, and that really hurt us,” said manager Frank Ramos, while the Little Leaguers were shut down in the middle innings by Mata. He shut Pecos out for two innings, allowing only a leadoff walk to John Michael Rodriguez in the fifth, before Hunter Coleman came on to retire the side in order in the sixth and clinch the victory.
Hinojos opened by allowing a single to Davis Fender and hitting Luke Fender, and both would eventually moved up and score on wild pitches and passed balls. “Other than that, Jay did pretty good,” said Ramos. “Jay and Gustavo kept us in the game, but we just couldn’t get any big hits.”
Pecos made it to Saturday’s game by rallying twice on Friday against Slaton, then surviving a Slaton comeback in the seventh inning, when they tied the game at 7-7 ands had bases loaded with none out.Pecos was unable to score in the first four innings off starter Brian Pina, leaving runners in scoring position in three of those four innings, while Slaton scored single runs in the first three innings off Zuniga.
A walk to Brent Carlton, followed by a passed ball and stolen base set up an RBI ground out by Hayden Farkware in the first inning, while in the second it was a walk to Pina, a throwing error by Mendoza and an RBI single by Brittany Perales that scored Slaton’s run. In the third, Justin Escobar blooped a double down the right field line and scored on a single by Alex Vasquez.
While Pina was keeping Pecos scoreless, he also was throwing a lot of pitches, and was just four under the 75-pitch limit when the fifth inning began. Chase Miller replaced him on the mound and was greeted by a leadoff single by Mendoza. John Michael Rodriguez then reached second on a dropped fly ball and Mendoza scored when Farkware booted Hinojos’ grounder for an error.
After an intentional walk to Ortega, Rodriguez scored on a Martinez ground out, and Pecos tied the game when Escobar misplayed J.J. Lerma’s grounder to third.
Escobar then came on to pitch and got out of the inning, while Zuniga left after reaching his pitch count limit with one out in the bottom of the fifth, with Carlton on third after a leadoff single and two base error by Tarin in center. Ortega came on to pitch and was greeted with a bad-hop RBI single by Farkware, who then scored on another throwing error by Mendoza, this time on a Vasquez grounder to first. He would go to second on the play, and scored on a passed ball by Rodriguez and a missed throw from the catcher to Hinojos at third base.
Down by three in their last at-bat, Pecos then took advantage of Slaton’s errors. Farkware misplayed Mendoza’s grounder to short, Rodriguez followed with a bloop single and then, after Mendoza was picked off third, Hinojos reached on another error by the shortstop. That led Slaton to swap Farkware for Carlton, who moved from catcher, but he immediately threw away Ortega’s grounder, allowing one run to score. Pecos made it 7-6 when Alex Espinoza misplayed Martinez’s grounder to third, and after Zuniga forced Ortega at third for the second out, a wild pitch moved Martinez to third, and he scored after Miller couldn’t hold Farkware’s throw when Martinez was caught in a rundown.
Ortega then struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth, and Pecos took a 7-6 lead when Mendoza and Rodriguez walked with one away and Hinojos had an RBI single off the left field fence. But Hinojos then had an error on a Carlton grounder to open the bottom of the inning, Escobar walked and after a Farkware single, Slaton tied the game on a passed ball by Rodriguez.
Ramos then had Vasquez intentionally walked, and the strategy paid off when Roland Cardenas grounded to Mendoza, who forced Escobar at home, and Ortega then fanned Kaleb Stricklin and Jesse Burnal to end the inning.
In the eighth, Martinez reached on an error by new third baseman Pina, moved to third on a double by Zuniga and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Lerma. Tarin then followed with an RBI single to left, and went to third when the ball got past Perales. Lerma scored, and Tarin came home one out later on another error by Pina, on a Mendoza grounder. He ended up on third and scored the final run on a wild pitch by Burnal, who relieved Escobar.
Perales singled to open the bottom of the inning, but was doubled off first by Martinez, who caught Esparza’s liner to right, and Ortega then got Carlton to ground to shortstop, to end the game.
On Thursday, control problems by Pecos’ pitchers allowed El Paso Frank Manning to get their first two runners on base before a rain delay, and then score four times in the first after play resumed. El Paso added five more runs in the second inning before Pecos could get on the scoreboard, and would end the game in the fourth inning under the 10-run rule.
Frank Manning was shut out by Lubbock Southwest, 10-0 in the semifinals on Saturday, which moved Southwest into the tournament title game on Monday night in Midland.
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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