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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
Sloppy play doesn't hurt Eagles in 17-3 win
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Pecos Eagles' softball team wasn't exactly playing at its highest level
Monday afternoon, during their make-up game against the Presidio Blue Devils,
and coach Tammy Walls hopes that changes by this afternoon, when the Eagles
take on the first place Monahans Loboes in a 5 p.m. game.
Walls started freshman Hillary Hinojos on the mound against the 0-5 Blue
Devils, but she ran into control problems, walking the game's first two
batters and hitting a third before leaving with the bases loaded and Presidio
ahead by a 1-0 score. Stephanie Herrera came on to pitch after that, and
while she would walk home another run, the junior shut down Presidio until
the fifth inning, while the Eagles took advantage of a series of Blue Devil
errors to score a 17-3 victory at Martinez Field.
"Hillary just had problems finding the strike zone," said Walls, who also
had concerns about the Eagles' problems hitting and base running despite
the 14-run margin of victory.
"Sometimes you play to the level of your competition, and that's the
way we were tonight," she said.
The Eagles went the entire game without a hard hit ball to the outfield,
though they did have several hard-hit infield grounders, both for base hits
and through the legs of third basemen Christa Carrasco and Bianca Gutierrez.
Carrasco did have an infield single off Hinojos' glove in the first inning,
when Presidio took their 2-0 lead, but she would have two errors in the
second inning and also threw away a Jessica Flores' grounder in the first
inning, allowing Kristy Contreras to score Pecos' first run of the game.
She reached on a walk, and Flores then scored to tie the game on a single
by Herrera. In the second, Hinojos circled the bases after her grounder
went through the legs of both Carrasco and left fielder Tabitha Garcia,
putting Pecos ahead to stay. Vanessa Valeriano reached on Carrasco's third
error and after singles by Danielle Garcia and Brittany Lobstein made it
4-2, Moria Chavez came on to replace starting pitcher Lupita Ramirez.
She didn't fare any better. Contreras reached on an infield hit, Chavez
wild pitched Garcia home and Lobstein scored on Flores' sacrifice fly. Herrera
then reached on a bunt single, Bre'Ann Windham was hit by a pitch and Kelsey
Flores singled and Hinojos grounded out for the final two runs of the inning.
Gutierrez let Garcia's grounder go through her legs at third base to start
the third inning as Carrasco came on to pitch, and Garcia then beat a throw
to second on a fielder's choice grounder by Lobstein. Two passed balls by
catcher Catryna Rodriguez scored Garcia and a wild pitch brought home Lobstein,
while Jessica Flores would walk and score on another sacrifice fly, this
one by Herrera.
Pecos would score five more times in the fourth inning on four hits, two
more Presidio errors and three walks and a couple of wild pitches by Carrasco.
In the fifth, Carrasco would single and ended up scoring on an infield pop
up, when Jessica Flores threw to first base to try and double off Gutierrez,
who had reached on an error by Contreras at shortstop.
"We found some ways to score some runs and took advantage of some errors,
which compensated for our sloppy play, but a good team will take advantage
of the way we played tonight," Walls said, referring to today's game against
Monahans.
The Loboes have had only one close game in district play, a 5-1 extra-inning
victory at Fort Stockton. They shut out Kermit on Friday, 11-0, and defeated
the Eagles in Pecos in mid-March by an 11-3 score, taking advantage of control
problems by Danielle Garcia in the first inning to score two runs, and then
using nine hits and two Pecos errors to score eight times in the second
inning off Herrera, on the way to a 12-5 victory.
Tuesday's win ties Pecos for second place in the District 4-3A standings
with Greenwood at 4-2. The Rangerettes lost to Fort Stockton on Friday,
4-0. The Prowlers are 3-3 and go to Presidio this afternoon.
Presidio 200 01 3 2 9
Pecos 255 5x 17 11 2
Ramirez, Chavez (2), Carrasco (3) and Rodriguez. Hinojos, Herrera (1)
and Lobstein. W - Herrera. L - Ramirez. SF - J. Flores, Herrera. SB - Pec.,
Windham, K. Flores, Contreras, Herrera, Ewing. HBP - Gutierrez by Hinojos,
Windham by Chavez, Mierhoff by Carrasco. WP - Chavez, Contreras 3, PB -
Rodriguez 2.
Four Pecos teams seeded at district tennis tourney
Pecos Eagle singles players Trent Graham and Natalia Ornelas will be
seeded second in their divisions this weekend, as will the doubles team of
Elizabeth Carreon and Jennifer Rayos, when the District 4-3A Tournament
is held at the Monahans High School tennis courts.
We got teams seeded in every division, so I was happy," said coach Mike
Ortiz. "In the four divisions we've got three No. 2s and our boys doubles
are No. 3 seeds, so it looks pretty good."
Graham will face Monahans' Simon Leyva in his opening round match at
9 a.m. on Friday, while the Eagles' other singles player, Frankie Hernandez,
will take on No. 1 seed Bjorn Subia of Fort Stockton in his first round
match, with all opening round matches scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday.
Ornelas has to wait until noon to play her opening round match. She'll
face the winner between Monahans' Cheyenne Smith and Fort Stockton's C.J.
Graves. The Eagles' other singles player, Whitney Lamb, will face Elisha
Blanco of Fort Stockton in her opening round match.
Monahans' Christi Gatski is seeded No. 1 in the tournament. Gatski defeated
Ornelas this past Saturday in Fort Stockton during tournament play, but
Ornelas did come back to win third place in the girls' singles division.
Carreon and Rayos are matches against Williams and Campbell of Kermit
in their first round match, while Amanda Fleming and Beatrice Villarreal
will have a preliminary round match against Pena and Sanchez of Kermit,
with the winner facing No. 1 seeds Casee McKenzie and Kirti Ghandi of Fort
Stockton.
Jay Dannelley and Joel Sotelo are the No. 3 seeds in doubles for the
boys, while Stephen Lamb and Orlando Mendoza are the Eagles' other doubles
team. Both are matches against Monahans in the opening round - Dannelley
and Sotelo against Isaac Oyerbides and John Wilhelm and Lamb and Mendoza
against No. 2 seeds Quad Ledignham and Nolan Pritchard.
Ortiz said that for the first time since the Eagles moved out to the El
Paso-based District 2-4A in 1998, there will be a junior varsity division
of the district tournament. Imari Ornelas and Chantel Orona are the top
seeds in the girls' singles division, while in girls doubles play, Catherine
Garcia and Sara Natividad are seeded No. 2 and Heather Hignojos and Adrienne
Natividad are the No. 3 seeds.
This past Saturday, Ornelas defeated El Paso Irvin's Abby Roman, 6-1,
6-0; Carlsbad's Yvette Franco, 6-0, 6-2 and Fabens Christine Pacheco, 6-1,
6-1, before her 6-0, 6-2 loss to Gatski in the tournament semifinals. She
took third place by beating Andrews' Tricia Doloff, 6-1, 7-5.
Graham defeated Andrews' Patrick Grisson, 6-1, 6-3, but then lost to
Eric Fernandez of El Paso High in the tournament quarterfinals. Dannelley
and Sotelo also lost in the quarterfinals in doubles play, to Carlsbad's
Baker and Rodriguez, while Carreon and Rayos were beaten in the first round
by Sweningen and Rivas of Brownfield.
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 news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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