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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, March 30, 1999
Eagles face Canutillo, Clint today
PECOS, Mar. 30 -- The Pecos Eagles figure to have their
toughest game so far in District 2-4A baseball play tonight,
when they host the Clint Lions in a 7 p.m. start.
Meanwhile, Pecos' girls may have a slightly
tougher-than-expected time this afternoon in Canutillo, when
they begin the second half of their district softball
schedule with a 5 p.m. game against the last-place team in
2-4A.
Clint and Pecos are tied for first with San Elizario one
week into the 2-4A schedule. The Eagles opened play with an
11-0 win last Tuesday against Fabens, then routed Mountain
View in El Paso on Saturday, 20-2.
"We're going to have a good test against Clint," said
Eagles' coach Bubba Williams. The two teams have produced
similar results against common opponents, though the Lions
hold a slight edge -- they beat Alpine and Colorado City,
two of the teams Pecos has lost to this season. However
Clint's victory on Friday over Fabens was closer than the
Eagles' victory three days earlier, as they downed the
Wildcats by a 9-4 final score. They began 2-4A play with a
10-7 victory over Canutillo.
Josh Casillas no-hit Fabens in Pecos' district-opening win,
striking out eight and walking just one in a game that ended
in the fifth under the 10-run rule. Casillas, 5-1 will start
tonight for Pecos, while Clint figures to go with either
Freddie Ortiz, 4-0, or Roger Baeza, 2-0, on the mound
tonight.
In softball, the two Eagle teams that meet in Canutillo
today are at opposite ends of the district standings.
Pecos is 5-0 while Canutillo is suffering through the same
sort of season the visiting Eagles endured last Spring in
their first year of softball play. Canutillo is 0-6 and 1-11
overall, matching Pecos' record at the same point last year.
That includes an 11-0 loss in Pecos three weeks ago, but
coach Tammy Walls said the Eagles will be without one of
their starters today,and had been concerned two would not
make the trip to Canutillo.
"I won't have Katrina (Quiroz) or Rebecca (Wein) for
Tuesday," Walls said Tuesday, though as things turned out
Quiroz will be able to play. Walls said it was first thought
the shortstop has run out of extracurricular travel hours,
but one missed day was for the Eagles' volleyball playoff
game in November, which didn't count in the total.
Wein, the Eagles' catcher, will miss the game for
disciplinary reasons, Walls said, with Evelyn Galindo taking
her place. Quiroz and Wein have been the No. 3 and 4 batters
in Pecos' lineup this season.
The Eagles are a game up on Clint in the girls' softball
standings, and have played two fewer games than the 5-2
Wildcats. Pecos could clinch at least a tie for the third
playoff spot today with a win and a loss by 3-3 Mountain
View to Fabens.
UConn title hopes strike gold
By KEN BERGER
AP Sports Writer
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Mar. 30 -- Now everyone knows what
Jim Calhoun knew all along. Connecticut had nothing to fear.
It was apparent in the UConn coach's eyes as he walked on
the court for his first national championship game. It was
proved beyond all doubt when Ricky Moore did what most great
players need the ball to do.
``I wanted to shock the world,'' said Moore, whose
defensive stop on Trajan Langdon in the final seconds gave
Calhoun and the Huskies the national title with a stunning
77-74 victory over Duke.
It was the moment Calhoun and his former and current
players have been thirsting for all these years. It was the
upset that almost no one believed could happen.
Everyone except Calhoun and his supremely confident players
seemed to believe the game was a mere prelude to the Blue
Devils' coronation as one of the best college teams ever.
Instead, it was UConn (34-2), a team touched by tragedy and
chased by memories of shots and games that went against them
too many times late in March.
No more.
``The kids knew better,'' said Calhoun, who finally got the
prize he's chased for 27 years. ``They knew they were going
to win. They were going to beat the best, and they did beat
the best. As of this moment, we're the best team in the
country.''
Calhoun can finally say that because he had a pudgy little
point guard with no shame in his game, the most tenacious
defender in America and the perfect game plan to beat the
team everyone thought was invincible.
``I'm no better a coach than I was three weeks ago, and no
worse,'' Calhoun said. ``Everybody thought I had to do
something. I didn't have to do anything. All I had to do was
be true to my kids and coach the best I could and that's
what I've done.''
UConn could finally celebrate when Khalid El-Amin dribbled
past Elton Brand for a daring jump shot in the final minute,
and Moore forced Langdon to travel with 5.4 seconds left.
Richard Hamilton, the most outstanding player of the Final
Four, capped a tremendous tournament with 27 points, and
Moore added 13 points. UConn's tireless defense
double-teamed Brand, the player of the year, every time he
touched the ball. Brand had 15 points and 13 rebounds, but
never got a chance to take over the game.
``They were just fighting every possession every time I
touched it,'' Brand said.
For Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski, all the talk about
their place in history -- on Tobacco Road and across the
land -- must be put on hold. The Blue Devils (37-2) saw
their 32-game winning streak stopped, their dominance
shaken, their chance for a third national championship this
decade crushed.
``I have a hard time being sad. I'm sorry,'' Coach K said
on the interview podium, moments after congratulating
Calhoun down the hall. ``I don't coach for winning. I coach
for relationships. I've got the best.''
Calhoun has some, too. Tucked in his breast pocket was a
photo of his first grandchild, born four days before former
team manager Joe McGinn died of kidney disease at 26. The
Huskies left a single strand of net hanging from the basket
in McGinn's honor.
Many of the key figures from Calhoun's past tournament
nightmares were right there in the stands to see this
victory, including the biggest nemesis of all, Christian
Laettner.
And some of Calhoun's best friends in the world, players
like Ray Allen and Scott Burrell who toiled without the
ultimate satisfaction of a Final Four, were on hand, too.
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
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 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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