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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Wednesday, March 13, 2002, PECOS ENTERPRISE
Eagles jump ahead early,
down Midland Christian
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
It wasn't their best game of the season, Pecos Eagles' coach
Bubba Williams said, but Tuesday's 8-4 win by the Eagles over the
Midland Christian Mustangs was certainly a good way to warm up before
entering the Alpine Tournament on Thursday morning.
The Eagles scored five times in the first inning off starter Shane
Wright and won their fourth straight game while handing Midland Christian
only their second loss in 14 games this season, by an 8-4 final score.
Richard Rodriguez, who had been hit hard by Alpine and Odessa Permian in his
last two outings, went the distance, allowing only six hits while
striking out eight in earning his first victory of the season.
"We played better than that in our first game against Monahans, but
we did a real good job tonight," Williams said. "When we're clicking we're
good, and Richard did a good job on the mound, didn't get upset when
things went wrong and kept his cool tonight."
Rodriguez gave up a few late inning extra-base hits to the Mustangs,
but those came after Pecos had built a 7-0 lead against Wright and reliever
Josh Wilson, who began the game at first base and got Pecos' rally started,
when he misplayed David Elkins' leadoff grounder in the bottom of the
first inning.
Rodriguez then reached second base when Coy Riley threw
his grounder to third over Wilson's head for another error. Mason Abila
then doubled past Riley down the line in left to score both runners, and
after Wright came back to retire Freddy Torres and Barney Rodriguez,
Capi Magana scored Pecos' third run by beating out an infield hit
behind second base.
Magana would score all the way from first on Rigo Ramirez' double
to left-center field, and Ramirez would score the Eagles' fifth run a
few moments later, after a single to left by Oscar Parada.
Wilson would replace Wright on the mound after he walked
Matthew Levario to open the second inning, but Elkins singled to right-center
on his first pitch and Richard Rodriguez then scored Levario with a
sacrifice fly. In the third the Eagles got an unearned run when Ramirez
and Parada singled with two away, Levario walked and then
Elkins reached base when shortstop Matt Daugherty booted his grounder.
Daugherty recovered to catch Parada straying off third base for
the final out, but the Mustangs would be victimized at third base twice in
their next at-bat, after getting their first run off Rodriguez in the top of the fourth.
Back-to-back doubled by Riley and Travis Horton made it 7-1,
but Horton was then caught in a rundown and tagged out by Parada on
a grounder to third by Wilson. Walks to Blake Morphew and
Price Thompson then loaded the bases, but Rodriguez came back to strike
out Roy Geer and Abila threw down to third to pick off pinch-runner
Shane Helling, to end the inning.
"That strike out, throw-`em out was a big momentum changer.
It stopped them," Williams said. The Mustangs would get single runs
in each of their final four innings, but only really threatened in the
sixth, when Wilson walked and Morphew doubled him home to lead off
the inning before Rodriguez came back to strike out three of the next
four batters to kill the threat.
Midland Christian had cut Pecos lead to 7-2 in the fifth on the
Eagles' only error of the night, when Torres misplayed Riley's single to left,
allowing Jamie Beeghley to score from first base, but the Eagles got that run back in
their half of the inning, on a triple by Levario and an RBI single by Elkins.
In the seventh, Beeghley scored the Mustangs' final run on a walk, a
single by Horton and Wilson's one-out sacrifice fly. Rodriguez then
got Morphew to fly out to Elkins in right field to end the game.
"When Richard throws like that and we play defense behind him
like that, we'll be tough to beat," said Williams, whose team improved to
8-4 on the season going into Thursday's tournament opener
in Alpine against the Wimberly Texans, beginning at 10:15 a.m.
Barney Rodriguez, 3-1, will pitch the opening game for the Eagles.
A win on Thursday would put the Eagles into a 12:30 p.m. game
on Friday against either McCamey or Presidio, while a loss would put
them into a consolation round game at 5 p.m. Friday against the loser
of Thursday's Fabens-Sonora game.
The Fabens-Sonora winner will
Forgetful Lions blanked by Pecos in 2-4A opener
Stephanie Herrera apparently didn't make much of an impression on
the Clint Lions last year, but Pecos Eagles' softball coach Tammy Walls said,
"She will now."
As a freshman, Herrera came on in relief of Alexa Marquez in the
teams' District 2-4A opener last season and shut Clint down, as Pecos rallied from
a five-run deficit to down the Lions. But Walls said by the time the two
teams met Tuesday afternoon in Clint to open this year's district schedule,
Herrera's effort _ and her later 9-7 win over the Lions _ apparently had been forgotten.
"Their coach said `you lost Alexa, didn't you?' and thought we would
be hurting for pitching, so they were surprised when they saw
Stephanie," Walls said. "We had her warming
up behind the bus."
Herrera did give up a leadoff single to Yvette Maldonado in the first
inning, but then shut the door on Clint the rest of the way, while the Eagles scored
three runs in the third inning off Jenny Parada, then broke the game open in the top
of the seventh by scoring five times, as the Eagles came away with an
8-0 victory.
"I thought we played very well as a team. Stephanie did a good job
controlling her pitches and keeping the ball
outside. She gave them pitches they couldn't pull on," Walls said.
That meant a busy afternoon for second baseman Danielle Garcia, who
had five put-outs, while Herrera recorded eight strikeouts in getting her fifth win in
six decisions.
Meanwhile, Parada had only the two bad innings, giving up three runs in
the third on a Becca Wein double and then five in the seventh, on six Pecos hits.
Jessica Rodriguez doubled with one out in the seventh, went to third on
a passed ball and later scored on a fielder's choice grounder by
Wein. After a walk to Katie Lee, Bre'Ann Windham singled home two runs,
and Kelsey Flores would single in the final two runs following another hit,
by Neftali Salgado.
"The Clint pitcher actually was pretty good. She's a lot better
than what I've seen out here in the past," said Walls, while on the other side,
she said the lack of pitching in the El Paso area probably hurt the Lions
on Tuesday. "They haven't seen a pitcher as fast as Stephanie," she said.
The loss dropped Clint to 4-9 on the season while Pecos improved to
5-3 going into their district home opener at 4 p.m. on Friday against Fabens.
The Wildcats defeated Canutillo in their 2-4A opener on Tuesday, 6-3, while
San Elizario beat El Paso Mountain View, 11-6, in the other district opening game.
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 newsdesk@nwol.net
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Copyright 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
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