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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Magana gets no-hitter as Eagles blank 'Cats
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Pitchers usually are on the mound, or at least somewhere near it, when
they celebrate no-hitters.
Tuesday night, Pecos' Capi Magana was near the dugout when he found
out about his no-hitter, which he ended up closing out at bat instead of
on the mound, in the Eagles' 10-0 victory over the Fabens Wildcats.
The senior ended the game on second base, when outfielder Javier Mendoza
dropped Magana's fly ball to center, allowing Rigo Ramirez to score the
run that ended the game in the bottom of the sixth inning under the 10-run
rule. And the no-hitter was overshadowed in the early innings by three
double plays by the Eagles and a running catch in right-center field by
David Elkins in the first inning, that ended up being the closest Fabens
would get to a hit all night.
The win was Magana's third straight after missing the first three weeks
of the season, but Eagles' coach Bubba Williams said despite the no-hitter,
the senior still has room for improvement.
"He's started throwing the ball a little harder, but he's not there
with his velocity yet. Later on in the year when he starts throwing more
he can get his velocity up," Williams said.
Williams was also happy with the play of Elkins, who along with his
running catch of Frank Cedillos line drive into right-centerfield was 3-for-4
at the plate, including starting a three-run first inning off Fabens pitcher
Carlos Sanchez.
"David Elkins is on fire. He's leading things off and he's on a roll,"
Williams said. "He's doing a fantastic job hitting the ball."
Elkins singled to start the first inning, and after pop outs by Richard
Rodriguez and Mason Abila, Sanchez walked Freddy Torres and gave up an
RBI single to Ramirez. Magana followed by doubling to left-centerfield
to score two runs for a 3-0 lead.
Magana gave up a leadoff walk in the second inning, but Rodriguez and
Matthew Levario then turned a double play on Steven Ornelas' bouncer to
shortstop. In the third inning Adrian Telas was awarded first base on catcher's
interference by Abila, but Levario and Rodriguez then turned another double
play, this one on a bouncer to second by Omar Madrid. Then in the fourth
inning, after Cedillos reached on an error by Rodriguez, Abila threw him
out trying to steal on a Magana strikeout of Sanchez to end that threat.
Meanwhile, Fabens turned a double play on Levario in the second inning
to get Sanchez out of trouble, and would get another DP to end the fourth,
throwing out Ruvel Carrasco at home plate on a Ramirez grounder. But in-between,
Pecos scored four more times in the third inning for a 7-0 lead.
Sanchez again gave up a leadoff single, this one to Torres, and got
two outs before he got into trouble. Barney Rodriguez doubled and Oscar
Parada beat out an infield hit to score Torres. Levario then followed with
a two-run double down the line in left and scored on Elkins' RBI single
to right.
Pecos ended the game in the sixth after Ornelas came on to relieve Sanchez
when Elkins' fly ball was dropped in center by Mendoza. He would later
score on a wild pitch, while Abila walked and scored on a two-out single
by Ramirez, who then came all the way around to score the 10th
run when Magana's fly ball was dropped.
Magana ended up facing only one batter over the minimum while striking
out seven for the Eagles, who won their 10th straight game and
are now 14-4 on the season, and 2-0 in District 2-4A play going into Thursday's
5 p.m. game at Canutillo. Fabens, which had won its last two games in Pecos,
is now 8-7-1 on the season and 1-1 in district.
Canutillo lost their 2-4A opener to the Wildcats, 3-2, and dropped another
one-run game on Tuesday, this one to El Paso Mountain View, 1-0, which
was also the Lobos' first district win since the 2000 season. San Elizario
defeated Clint, 10-0, in Tuesday's other 2-4A contest.
Eagles overcome problems to rout Lobos
The fourth game of District 2-4A play was a little sloppier for the Pecos
Eagles softball team than the first three games were, though the final
results were no different.
The Eagles pushed across single runs in the first three innings, added
four more in the fourth and sixth innings and allowed Mountain View only
a pair of unearned runs in the second and sixth innings in defeating the
Lobos by a 12-2 final score in El Paso Tuesday afternoon.
Stephanie Herrera allowed only one hit, while walking in a run in the
second and seeing another score due to errors in the sixth, after coach
Tammy Walls had put her substitutes into the game.
"She had some control problems early on but she came back and regained
her control after that," said Walls of Herrera, who improved to 8-1 on
the season.
The Eagles had a chance to end the game in the sixth under the 10-run
rule after jumping ahead 11-1 in the top of the inning, but mistakes allowed
the Lobos to get one run and keep the game alive into the seventh. "We
had more errors last night than we have had, but I played everybody," Walls
said. "I was afraid we were going to run-rule them, so to play everybody
before then I had to play some in positions they haven't normally played."
Mountain View also had several errors of their own that led to the Eagles'
first three runs, while in the fourth Rebecca Wein had a double and Brittany
Lobstein and Neftali Salgado had RBI singles for the Eagles off Lobos'
pitcher Vanessa Sanchez.
"We hit the ball real well. We had 12 hits, but we also left a lot of
runners stranded," said Walls. "I made some changes in my batting lineup
and that may be the reason we left so many (10) on base."
"We hit the ball well, but we just never seemed to get our rhythm down,"
Walls said.
She added that Wein was 4-for-5 on the day and was robbed of a hit in
her other at-bat, while Salgado and Jessica Rodriguez were 3-for-5 in the
game.
The win lifted the Eagles' record to 8-3 on the season and gave them
a 4-0 record in District 2-4A play going into their final game of the first
half of district play, Thursday afternoon against San Elizario. Pecos moved
into sole possession of first in the 2-4A standings after San Eli lost
to Canutillo on Tuesday, 6-5.
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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