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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Monday, May 5, 2003
Eagles shut down Indians' hitters, sweep series
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
"The playoffs are a different season," Pecos Eagles coach Elias Payan said
following his team's final regular season game, a 6-2 loss to the Presidio
Blue Devils. And as it turned out, that's the way the Eagles played their
bi-district series over the weekend against the Seminole Indians.
The Eagles, who had few low-scoring games through the course of the 2003
baseball season, went into Seminole Friday night and came away with a 1-0
win over the Indians, as Barney Rodriguez tossed a one-hitter and hit a
solo home run off Seminole's Aaron McBee to lead off the top of the seventh
inning.
Things looked like they would go back to normal for the Eagles at the
start of Game 2 on Saturday in Pecos, as pitcher Josh Anchondo hit McBee
with the game's first pitch, and walked the next two batters on nine pitches.
Drew Worth then drove home Seminole's first run of the series with a sacrifice
fly to deep center, but that also turned out to be the last run of the series
for the Indians. Anchondo settled down, and the Eagles used a two-run triple
by Matthew Levario and a pair of home runs by David Elkins off Pete Guerra
to break open the game and win in five innings, 11-1, to sweep the best-of-three
bi-district series.
"We hit the ball well," said Payan. "Their pitcher (McBee) was able to
hold our hitters down, but we got some good pitching and some good hitting
overall, so it was a team effort."
Rodriguez came into Friday's game with only a 6-6 record, including a
loss in relief to Seminole back on March 6 at the West Texas Classic in
Midland. McBee started that game, but wasn't around by the finish, when
Seminole used an error to defeat Pecos by a 10-9 score, but he was on the
mound at the outset, when Rodriguez' two run home run gave the Eagles a
2-0 lead.
This time neither team managed a run until the seventh, when Rodriguez
sent a 2-2 pitch from McBee over the wall in left-center field for his sixth
home run of the season.
"Overall, defensively we played very well," said Payan. "I told them
it would only take a couple of runs (to win) because Barney was on. He's
not going to blow the ball by them, so we're going to have to play defense
and that's what we did."
Seminole did get a couple of baserunners on in the fifth and sixth innings
on throwing errors by Matthew Levario and Jose Reyes, but earlier Levario
had taken a hit away from David Clay on a slow infield roller to lead off
the third inning, and Reyes would get Matt Hawkins on a grounder to shortstop
to end the first inning, after the Indians put runners on second and third
with two outs.
Pecos also had a chance to score in the first inning, after Elkins walked
and Reyes singled to open the game, but Elkins was then thrown out at home
trying to score from second on a single by Rigo Ramirez. The Eagles also
got Freddy Torres to third base in the second inning with two away, but
he was left stranded by McBee.
McBee also had what turned out to be Seminole's only hit of the evening,
beat out an infield bouncer to Reyes at shortstop to open the game. Rodriguez
then walked Braxton Bates before coming back to get Guerra, Worth and Hawkins
to end the threat. Aside from Levario's play on Clay's grounder, the Indians'
only other chance at a hit came in the fifth, when Oscar Parada made a sliding
catch on McBee's fly ball to open the inning.
Seminole also made several defensive plays to rob Pecos of hits in the
game, and started off Game 2 on Saturday by turning a double play to end
the first inning and protect their 1-0 lead. But in the second Parada opened
with a single just over Hawkins' glove at second base, Rodriguez followed
with a double and Levario then tripled both runners home for a 2-1 Eagle
lead. Guerra then got two outs, but walked Ruvel Carrasco and then saw Elkins
homer into the trees in left-center field to make it a 5-1 game.
Elkins would strike again with two outs in the fourth inning, this time
after a single by Carrasco to put the Eagles ahead 7-1. Then in the fifth,
Carrasco would drive in a couple of runs of his own with a single to right-center
field, after Guerra walked Levario, hit Torres with a pitch and gave up
a single to pinch hitter Victor Reyes.
That brought Steven Cuevas on to pitch and he did strike out Elkins, but
his curveball handcuffed Worth twice as well, as he allowed two passed balls
around a balk by the new pitcher, which allowed both Reyes and pinch-runner
Javier Ramirez to score, ending the game under the 10-run rule.
Anchondo ended up with a two-hitter, allowing only a two-out single to
Clay in the fourth inning and a one-out hit to Guerra in the fifth. But
his early control problems almost sent him to the bench, as the freshman
walked Robert Ramirez to re-load the bases and went to a 3-1 count on Evan
Stone before coming back to strike him and Bates out to end the inning.
"He was one pitch away from coming out. Had he walked that batter (Stone)
I would have pulled him," said Payan. "But he was able to bear down and
get out of trouble, and he got the job done after that."
The win gives Pecos a 19-10 season mark and advances them to the area
round of the state playoffs for the fifth straight season, but the first
time as a member of Class 3A. They'll take on the Lubbock Cooper Pirates,
the District 2-3A champions, in the area round best-of-three series, scheduled
for 7 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday at the Scharbauer Center's First American
Bank Ballpark in Midland. A third game if needed would begin about 3:30
p.m. on Saturday.
District 4-3A champ Monahans will face Borger in the area round of the
playoffs this weekend in Lubbock, with the winner facing the winner of the
Pecos-Lubbock Cooper series in the regional quarterfinals. The runner-up
team out of 4-3A, Greenwood, was eliminated by Snyder in the bi-district
round of the playoffs. The Tigers won the first game at home on Friday, 4-3,
then lost at Greenwood on Saturday, 16-12, before winning the deciding game,
8-5
PECOS SEMINOLE
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Elkins rf 2 0 0 0 McBee p 3 0 1 0
JReyes ss 3 0 1 0 Phillips cr 0 0 0 0
RiRmrz 1b 3 0 1 0 Bates cf 2 0 0 0
Parada cf 3 0 0 0 Guerra ss 2 0 0 0
Rdrgz p 3 1 1 1 Worth c 3 0 0 0
Levario 3b 3 0 1 0 Hwkns 2b 3 0 0 0
JRmrz lf 0 0 0 0 Cstlbry 1b 0 0 0 0
Torres dh 3 0 1 0 Stone dh 3 0 0 0
Serrano 2b 3 0 0 0 Ro.Rmrz rf 3 0 0 0
Carrasco c 3 0 0 0 Lowen 3b 2 0 0 0
Clay lf 2 0 0 0
Totals 26 1 5 1 Totals 23 0 1 0
Pecos 000 100 1 - 2
Seminole 000 000 0 - 0
E- Levario, J. Reyes, Guerra. LOB-Pecos
5, Seminole 4. HR-Rodriguez (6). SB-Torres 2. CS-Elkins.
IP H R ER BB SO
Pecos
Rodriguez W,7-6 7 1 0 0 1 2
Seminole
McBee L, 6-4 7 5 1 1 1 4
HBP-by Rdoriguez (Guerra).
T-1:46.
SEMINOLE PECOS
ab r h bi ab r h bi
McBee ss 2 1 0 0 Elkins rf 3 2 2 5
Hwkns 2b 2 0 0 0 JReyes ss 2 0 1 0
Gurra p-3b 1 0 1 0 RiRmrz cf 4 0 0 0
Phillips cr 0 0 0 0 Parada lf 3 1 1 0
Worth c 2 0 0 1 Rdrguz 1b 2 1 1 0
RoRmrez rf 1 0 0 0 Lvrio 3b 2 2 1 2
Farmer 1b 0 0 0 0 Anchndo p 0 0 0 0
Stone dh 3 0 0 0 Torres dh 2 1 0 0
Bates cf 2 0 0 0 Serrano 2b 2 0 0 0
Lowen 3b 2 0 0 0 VReyes ph 1 1 1 0
Cuevas p 0 0 0 0 Carrasco c 2 0 2 2
Clay lf 1 0 1 0 J.Rmrz cr 0 3 0 0
Totals 16 1 2 1 Totals 22 11 9 9
Seminole 100 00 - 1
Pecos 050 24 - 11
Game ended in fifth inning under 10-run rule
E-Parada, Clay, McBee. DP-Seminole 1. LOB-Seminole 8, Pecos 3. 2B-Rodriguez.
3B-Levario. HR- Elkins 2 (5). SF-Wirth. SB-Levario.
IP H R ER BB SO
Seminole
Guerra L, 4-5 41/3 9 11 9 3 1
Cuevas 1/3 0 0 0 0 1
Pecos
Anchondo W, 5-1 5 2 1 1 6 6
HBP - by Guerra (Rodriguez, Torres)
Balk - Cuevas.
PB-Carrasco, Wirth 2.
T-1:58.
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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