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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Friday, March 29, 2002
Pecos escapes Canutillo with 5-4 victory
That old line by Yogi Berra that "It ain't over until it's over" really
applied to Thursday afternoon's game between the Pecos Eagles and the Canutillo
Golden Eagles.
Up 4-0 going into the bottom of the seventh, Pecos' Matthew Levario
needed only two pitches to get the first two outs of the inning. But three
hits, three errors and one hit batter later, Canutillo had tied the game,
and Levario had been replaced on the mound by Capi Magana.
He got the final out of the inning and the Eagles got a run in the top
of the eighth to grab a 5-4 lead. But Pecos still had to survive Canutillo
loading the bases on two walks and a hit batter in the bottom of the inning,
before Magana struck out clean-up hitter Alex Vela to end the game and
keep the Eagles atop the District 2-4A standings.
Canutillo has lost a series of low-scoring one-run ballgames this season,
including their first two district contests, by 3-2 and 1-0 scores against
Fabens and El Paso Mountain View. Thursday's game was another low-scoring
affair, but it didn't look like it would be a one-run game after Pecos
scored a run in the first inning, two in the third and another in the fifth
inning to take a 4-0 lead.
David Elkins doubled to lead off the game against Canutillo's Frank
Molinar, and scored on Andy Barraza's two-out error on a Freddy Torres
grounder. In the third Levario opened the inning with a double and scored
on an error, which allowed Elkins to reach base, and he later scored on
a sacrifice fly by Richard Rodriguez.
Levario reached again to lead off the fifth, this time on a single,
and Mason Abila would later drive in courtesy runner Javier Ramirez with
a double off Molinar.
Meanwhile, Levario only had to get out of two minor jams over the first
six innings, as Andy Acosta reached third base in the first inning and
singles by Vela and Molinar and an error by Oscar Parada loaded the bases
in the fourth before Luis Porras popped out to end the inning.
Pecos was within one strike of winning the game twice in the seventh.
The first game after Acosta reached on an error by Richard Rodriguez with
two outs, and a double by Julian Lopez and single by Carlos Torres made
it 4-2. Vela reached when his two-strike grounder to third was thrown low
to first by Parada and past Barney Rodriguez, which scored Torres. Then,
after Levario hit Edgar Munoz with a pitch, Molinar slapped an 0-2 pitch
into left field for a single, scoring Vela from second base to tie the
game.
Magana, who no-hit Fabens on Tuesday, then swapped places with Levario
and got Josh Lopez to pop out to Levario at shortstop, and the Eagles then
loaded the bases with none out in the eighth on walks to Torres and Magana
around a single by Rigo Ramirez. Barney Rodriguez then scored Torres with
a sacrifice fly, but the Golden Eagles kept the lead at 5-4 when Vela threw
out Ramirez at home plate after fielding a carom shot by Levario off Munoz's
glove at third base.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Eagles again were within a strike
of winning twice before finally putting the game away. Magana got two outs
after a leadoff walk to Porras, but then hit Julian Lopez with an 0-2 pitch
and walked Carlos Torres after getting a 2-2 count on the hitter. But the
senior then got ahead of Vela and caught him looking with a pitch to end
the game and improve his record to 4-0 on the season.
Pecos won for the 11th straight time and are 15-4 on the
season, 3-0 in district, while Canutillo falls to 5-11 and 0-3 overall.
Thursday's game was the first of three straight in the El Paso area for
the Eagles, who'll face the Mountain View Lobos next Tuesday.
Three-run sixth inning gets Eagles by San Eli
In 43 district games during the five-plus year history of the Pecos Eagles'
softball program, the Eagles had never played a game in which fewer than
five runs had been scored _ until Thursday afternoon.
The Eagles were getting bombed out by the Andrews Mustangs, Big Spring
Steers and other District 4-4A teams in their first season of softball
play, and have spent the last three seasons bombing out their District
2-4A rivals while winning three straight district championships. That included
their first four district games this season, when Pecos scored eight runs
once, 11 runs once and 12 runs in their two other games.
But all that changed on Thursday afternoon against San Elizario's Valerie
Soto, who shut out the Eagles on two hits for five innings after her teammates
has pushed across an unearned run in the top of the first inning at Martinez
Field.
However, in the sixth two walks and three stolen bases set up Rebecca
Wein's two-run single to centerfield, and three San Eli errors allowed
Wein to score an insurance run for pitcher Stephanie Herrera, who matched
Soto with a two-hitter of her own and kept the Eagles alone atop the district
standings with a 3-1 victory.
"I thought their pitcher pitched a very good game," said Eagles' coach
Tammy Walls. "She's the best we've seen from out there (in El Paso), and
we haven't seen anybody like that since before district. But in the end
Jessica (Rodriguez), Becca and Stephanie came through for us, and Katie
Lee got that last RBI."
Soto, who missed the early part of the season for San Eli, had allowed
only a second inning bloop double by Neftali Salgado and an infield single
by Wein going into the sixth inning, while striking out five and stranding
runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings.
She retired the side in the fifth, but in the sixth walked Rodriguez
on a 3-2 pitch and then saw her steal second and third. Herrera then walked
and took advantage of a mental mistake by Soto to take second without a
throw, and Wein followed by bouncing one past the pitcher and into centerfield.
Rodriguez scored easily to tie the game and Herrera came home when centerfielder
Vicki Treviso bobbled the ball, and then threw it past third base for a
double error. That allowed Wein to reach third and she scored when second
baseman April Valencia took her eye off Lee's grounder and misplayed the
ball for another error.
"Becca had an outstanding game," said Walls. The senior catcher collected
two of the Eagles' three hits and made a diving catch of an Annette Meija
foul bunt to open the fifth inning.
Her only mistakes came in the first inning, part of a series of problems
by Pecos that allowed Carla Garcia to score the game's first run. She walked
on four straight pitches to open the game, went to second on a wild pitch
and third on a passed ball, and then scored when Wein's pickoff attempt
from catcher to third base bounced off Brittany Lobstein's glove and into
left field.
Meanwhile, Lobstein walked but was stranded at second base in the bottom
of the first inning, Salgado was stranded there after her double in the
second and in the third Bre'Ann Windham was thrown out trying to score
on an overthrow of third by Treviso on a Rodriguez fly, after she and Lobstein
walked to lead off the inning. She then got Herrera on a pop out to end
the threat.
Wein's infield hit to open the fourth was followed by a throwing error
by catcher Reba Madrid that put her on second. She went to third on a grounder
by Lee, but Soto then struck out Salgado and got Kelsey Flores on a grounder
to second, the first of five straight batters retired by Soto until Pecos
broke through in the sixth.
Herrera, meanwhile, was having few problems after the first inning.
Salgado threw out Garcia in the third trying to stretch a bloop single
into a double, and Herrera came back to retire three straight batters after
Soto reached on an error by Lobstein to open the fourth, and ended up retiring
the final 12 batters she faced to end the game.
"I felt like we settled down after the first inning. We just had to
wait until we got back around to the top of the lineup, and I felt we would
capitalize," said Walls.
The win moved the Eagles two games ahead of San Elizario and Canutillo
in the District 2-4A standings at the midway point. Pecos is 5-0 in district
and 9-3 overall, while Herrera improved to 9-1 on the season.
Canutillo is tied with San Eli after edging Clint on Thursday, 10-9,
while Fabens routed El Paso Mountain View, 11-1. The second half of district
play begins for the Eagles on Tuesday, with a 5 p.m. game at home against
Clint.
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
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 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
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