|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Eagles knock Lions out of first
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Mar. 31 -- D.J. Check could only go so far to get a
ball Tuesday night, and the one John Gutierrez hit was a
little bit out of even the Clint center fielder's range.
Check, who went to the fence in center to rob Oscar Luna of
an extra-base hit in the second inning of Tuesday's game
between the Lions and the Pecos Eagles, but could only make
a leaping try at Gutierrez' shot an inning later, a two-run
homer into the wind in dead center that gave Pecos a 4-0
lead, on the way to a 5-0 victory.
Playing to break a tie for first place in the District 2-4A
standings, the Eagles got a four-hit performance out of
pitcher Josh Casillas and an overall strong defensive effort
to defeat the Lions and pitcher Freddie Ortiz.
"Defensively we made the big plays. That's the best we've
looked all season," said Eagles' coach Bubba Williams.
The only problems Pecos had was when Casillas was throwing
to bases besides home plate. He had two bad pickoff attempts
at second base, while also booting a Roger Baeza tap to the
right of the mound. But the junior was able to come back
after that error in the fifth to get Bobby Morales to bounce
out to shortstop Luis Salgado with the bases loaded, and
then Salgado made the big defensive play in the sixth, after
Clint had scored their first run to cut the lead to 5-1.
A double by Ortiz and a single by Josh Duran around a walk
to Mando Moreno got Clint on the board and put runners on
first and second with none out when Patrick Tullins hit a
fly ball to right-center that Kevin Bates misjudged. It went
over his head for a hit, but because pinch-runner Abel
Garcia had to hold at second base, Bates was able to recover
and get the ball into Salgado, who threw a strike to catcher
Mark Abila to nail Garcia.
Casillas then got Check to tap back to the mound and struck
out David Elias, then retired the six in order in the
seventh to earn his sixth victory.
"Kevin hit the cutoff man and Luis put the ball right on
the money and Mark put on the tag," Williams said. "That was
a big momentum killer."
Pecos jumped on Ortiz for two runs in the first at bat,
while Casillas, who no-hit Fabens a week ago, didn't allow
Clint a hit until Tullins led off the fifth inning with a
single.
Mason Abila scored the Eagles' first run, doubling with one
out and coming home on Casillas' single to center field.
Hector Garcia then ran for Casillas and stole second, then
scored on Gutierrez' single to right.
Pecos' final run was unearned and came in the fifth, when
Mark Abila reached second base on a one-out throwing error
by third baseman Larry Ochoa, then scored on Jeffrey
Martinez' single.
Martinez ran past first base and forced Lucio Florez into
an inning-ending rundown, one of two baserunning errors that
hurt Pecos. "We had some poor baserunning and should have
scored more runs," Williams said. "We could have scored
about seven or eight runs if it wasn't for that, but the
kids didn't let it bother them."
Pecos improved to 11-5-1 with their victory, 3-0 in
district, while Clint fell to 14-6 and 2-1, with both teams
having the weekend off due to Easter. The Eagles' next game
will be next Tuesday, when they travel to Canutillo for a 5
p.m. CDT game.
Tuesday
CLINT PECOS
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Arnold ss 3 0 0 0 Luna cf 4 0 0 0
Ochoa 3b 0 0 0 0 Ma.Abila lf 3 1 1 0
Morales dh 4 0 0 0 Mk.Abila c 3 1 0 0
Ortiz p 3 1 1 0 Casillas p 3 0 2 1
Moreno 1b 2 0 0 0 H.Garcia cr 0 2 0 0
A.Garcia pr 0 0 0 0 Gutrrez 1b 2 1 2 3
Duran c 3 0 1 1 Flores pr 0 0 0 0
Tullins rf 2 0 2 0 Valencia 2b 0 0 0 0
Check cf 3 0 0 0 Martinez dh 3 0 1 1
Elias 2b 3 0 0 0 Salgado ss 2 0 1 0
Baeza lf 2 0 0 0 Bates rf 3 0 2 0
Herrera 3b 3 0 0 0
Totals 25 1 4 1 Totals 26 5 9 5
Clint 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -- 1
Pecos 2 0 2 0 1 0 x -- 5
E -- Tullins, Casillas 3, Ochoa. LOB -- Clint 7, Pecos 5. 2B
-- Ma. Abila, Ortiz. HR -- Gutierrez. SB -- H. Garcia,
Herrera. CS -- Bates (by Duran).
IP H R ER BB KO
Clint
Ortiz L, 5-2 6 9 5 4 1 5
Pecos
Casillas W, 6-1 7 4 1 1 3 6
HBP -- Tullis by Casillas.
PB -- Duran.
T -- 1:46
Pecos' late outburst stops Canutillo
PECOS, Mar. 31 -- A year ago, this game would have been a
moral victory of sorts for the Pecos Eagles, since they
would have been on the wrong end of the 28-8 final score.
Instead, the Canutillo Eagles are the ones who can look
back at the game and say they played their first place
visitors close though the first four innings, trailing only
10-7 until Pecos reeled off 18 runs to break things open.
"It took us the whole game to get used to her (Marcia
Hurtado) pitching, but once we got use to her we scored 18
runs," Eagles' coach Tammy Walls said.
Canutillo has one just once in their first season of girls
softball, the same number of wins Pecos had in their first
season in 1998. But Tuesday's victory, combined with San
Elizario's 14-9 win over El Paso Mountain View, assured the
Eagles of no worse than a tie for third in the final
District 2-4A standings with four games to play.
Pecos never trailed in the game, but after scoring six
times in their first at-bat, saw the `host' Eagles (the game
was actually played 20 miles away from Canutillo) cut that
in half in the bottom of the first off starter Ashley
Salcido, then add four more runs in the third, after the
Eagles widened their last to 10-3.
It was Salcido's first start in district play and the first
start for catcher Evelyn Galindo, playing in place of
Rebecca Wein, who sat out the game for disciplinary reasons.
Walls said Salcido "did all right, but she just had a
little trouble with her control late in the second inning,
and Evelyn had some trouble stopping the ball."
Alexa Marquez came on after that and shut the door on
Canutillo, while the Eagles put the game away with their
18-run inning.
"They've improved quite a bit, but I felt Alexa could come
in and do the job, and she did," Walls said.
At bat, the Eagles had six home runs, two apiece by Salcido
and Katrina Quiroz. "They both hit one about 250 feet,"
Walls said, adding that Valerie Gonzales and Kathy Maldonado
had the other inside-the-park homers.
"I was pleased with the way they hit. They were able to
place the ball very well. Instead of just getting up there
and just hoping they hit it, they were able to pick their
spots," Walls said.
She added that Canutillo's Alex Vasquez had a couple of
hard hits off Salcido to help the host Eagles get their runs.
The Eagles are now 6-0 in district and 9-5 overall, while
Canutillo falls to 0-8 and 1-12. Pecos can clinch a playoff
spot with a win next Tuesday at home against Fabens, 16-9
losers to Clint on Tuesday. Walls said as of now, no date
has been set to make up last Saturday's rained-out home game
against El Paso Mountain View.
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
|
