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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, April 6, 1999
Eagles try to stay atop standings
PECOS, Apr. 6 -- After a week of rest, both the Pecos Eagle
baseball and softball teams will try to keep their district
records perfect this afternoon against a couple of teams
that have been struggling in the Canutillo Eagles and Fabens
Wildcats.
Pecos' boys will make the long drive to Canutillo for a 5
p.m. CDT start, an hour after the girls try to clinch their
first-ever playoff berth at home with a victory over the
Wildcats.
The girls are 6-0 in District 2-4A after their 28-8 victory
over Canutillo in El Paso a week ago. It improved Pecos'
overall record to 9-5 and a victory in any of their final
four games will assure the Eagles of a post-season berth. A
win today and a victory on Saturday over Clint would clinch
the district title and give Pecos a first round bye.
Last month in Fabens, the Eagles scored a 23-1 victory over
the Wildcats. Alexa Marquez, who came on in relief last
Tuesday against Canutillo, tossed a no-hitter, while Ashley
Salcido and Katrina Quiroz added home runs.
Fabens lost their last district game, by a 16-9 score to
Clint last Tuesday. On Thursday, the Wildcats were beaten by
El Paso Socorro, 15-0, to fall to 2-6 in district and 4-12
on the season.
Canutillo's baseball team also played a non-district game on
Thursday while Pecos was idle. That group of Eagles lost to
another group of El Paso-area Eagles, from Andress High
School, by a 5-2 final score. Ignacio Jurado took the loss,
but went 2-for-3 at the plate, while Hector Polanco was
2-for-4 with a double and a solo home run.
Canutillo did shut out El Paso Mountain View a week ago,
6-0, to improve to 1-2 in district and 3-10 on the season,
Meanwhile, Pecos is alone in first place after their 5-1
victory over Clint a week ago.
The Eagles played their best overall game on defense behind
pitcher Josh Casillas, who survived his own pickoff throw
problems to improve to 6-1 on the year, while the Eagles are
3-0 in 2-4A play and 11-5-1 overall.
Eagles' coach Bubba Williams said Casillas would start again
on the mound this afternoon. "I'll go with the same lineup,
but I might move the batting order a little and hit Jeff
(Martinez) third and Mark (Abila) sixth," he said. Abila has
been battling a slump the past few weeks while Martinez was
1-for-3 with an RBI against Clint a week ago.
Tigers' tale of woe mutes win over Texas
By JAIME ARON
AP Sports Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas, Apr. 6 -- Don't expect the Detroit Tigers
to do too much celebrating after their lopsided 11-5 victory
over Texas on opening day. After all, they still vividly
remember what happened last year.
The Tigers opened 1998 with an 11-6 victory over Tampa Bay,
then waited a week for their second win. Their fourth win
took two more weeks and by April 29 they were 5-18, eight
games out of the division lead.
So as excited as everyone was about Monday's victory,
everyone in the Detroit locker room knew not to get carried
away.
That's a shame, too, because there sure was a lot to be
savored -- from Brian Moehler's near no-hitter to Juan
Encarnacion's homer on the game's first pitch to the fact
every starter had scored a run or driven one in by the sixth
inning.
``We won big in the opener last year and we all know what
happened from then on,'' said Damion Easley, whose three-run
homer capped a seven-run third inning. ``We've got to take
each game for what it's worth.''
This one was worth a lot because of the way it was earned.
Moehler (1-0) overcame a pregame case of the jitters to hold
Texas, the AL's top-hitting team last year, without a hit
until one out into the seventh inning.
The thought of making his first opening day start got to
Moehler. Although he got 10 hours sleep, he cut his warmup
short because he didn't feel comfortable on the bullpen
mound. He also had a queasy stomach.
``For the first time in my career, I felt like I was going
to throw up,'' Moehler said.
But the right-hander settled down quickly and retired the
side in order in five of the first six innings. His only jam
was the second when he walked Juan Gonzalez and Rafael
Palmeiro, but got out of it with a double-play grounder and
a pop out.
Gonzalez's single in the seventh ended Moehler's bid to join
Bob Feller as the only pitchers to throw no-hitters on
opening day. Palmeiro followed with an RBI double that got
the Rangers within 11-1.
Detroit jumped all over Texas starter Rick Helling (0-1),
although he did much of the damage to himself.
Helling allowed four of the first five Tigers to reach base
and ended up being tagged for seven runs, five earned, in
just three innings. He faced six batters in the fourth and
gave up a three-run homer to Bobby Higginson, a double and
hit two batters -- after getting two strikes on each.
``I gave up that home run on the first pitch of the game,
but I felt like I settled down after that,'' said Helling,
who was 20-7 last year. ``I felt like I made some good
pitches, but when I had the chance to put some hitters away,
I couldn't do it. I just wasn't real good with my
location.''
Gonzalez, the reigning MVP, may be off on another chase of
Hack Wilson's RBI record as he went 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
Palmeiro was 1-for-3 in his first game for Texas since 1993.
The hitting stars for Detroit included Encarnacion going
2-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs; Easley going 2-for-5
with one run and three RBIs; and Dean Palmer and Deivi Cruz
each going 2-for-4 with a run.
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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