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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Friday, February 17, 2006
Pecos’ comeback fails in season-ending loss
Home court provided the Monahans Loboes with a little bit more of a cushion on Tuesday night against the Pecos Eagles than they had last month in Pecos, as the Loboes survived a big fourth quarter rally by Pecos and were once again able to pull away from the Eagles late in the game to come away with a win in the teams’ final game of the 2005-06 basketball season.
Monahans, which turned a two-point lead after three quarters into a 13-point win in Pecos three weeks ago, led by 18 points at the start of the period, saw that cut to six midway through the fourth quarter, before going on a 22-9 run to close out the game, in a 76-54 win over the Eagles.
The Loboes scored 34 points in the final period, but that was only four more than the Eagles, who went into the fourth quarter down 42-24. But Pecos then opened the period by almost doubling their point total in less than four minutes.
“We just went to a man defense and got a couple of turnovers, and then Luis Nunez of all people hit two straight 3s,” said Eagles’ coach Art Wellborn. “At one point we cut it to six (50-44), but then we ran out of steam.”
The lead was still only seven, at 52-45, midway through the period when the Loboes’ Sean Merick and Chris Collins took over. The two found openings inside, both on set plays and fast breaks, while Collins also hit one of Monahans’ six 3-point baskets on the night in the Loboes’ closing run. Collins finished with a game-high 18 points, while Merrick had 15 points.
Nunez, who hadn’t taken many outside shots this year, finished with eight and Jeremiah Jurado with nine, while Josh Anchondo, had13 points, most of those in the second half. Lupito Bustamantes was the only Eagle able to find the range in the early going. He had eight of Pecos’ first 10 points and finished with 14 on the night, as the Eagles were outscored 11-6 in both the first and second periods for a 10-point halftime deficit.
“Our guards were 2-for-21 from the field,” Wellborn said. “If we could have gotten any type of decent outside shooting, we would have had a chance to have won three or four more games.”
Pecos, which lost its final 11 District 3-3A games after an opening victory against Presidio. The Eagles ended up 3-21 on the season. The Eagles will have an almost entirely new team.
Eagles fly over Cranes in season opener, 16-0
The Pecos Eagles softball team had an easy time with the Crane Golden Cranes on Monday, in their 2005 softball season opener, and were scheduled to face the Cranes again Thursday afternoon in Andrews, in a pool round game of the Andrews Softball Tournament.
Pecos scored five times on one hit in the first inning against Crane, and went on to score a 16-0 victory over the Golden Cranes, who they’ll face along with Andrews’ gold team in their pool round games on Thursday. Play will continue with games on Friday and Saturday, with starting times to be determined by the opening round results.
“It was the same as before, we’re slow starters,” Eagles’ coach Tammy Walls said of her team’s offense. “We went through the lineup the first two innings, but didn’t hit the ball that much, but then in the third inning I thought we hit it hard.”
Amalie Herrera struck out 10 batters in five innings, including the side in order in the top of the first, before doubling home the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the inning. That came after Jana Morrison issued leadoff walks to Bianca Baeza and Cassandra Terrazas, and after Herrera’s hit to left field, Morrison then hit Jessica Florez with a pitch.
She scored one out later on an infield grounder by Claire Weinacht, who was safe when second baseman Maricella Banueles couldn’t handle the ball. Jenny Palomino then reached on an error by third baseman Morgan Blue, and both runners would score on passed balls by catcher Stormy Woodfin.
In the second, Baeza opened with an infield hit, and scored on a steal of second, a passed ball and a wild pitch, before Terrazas walked and scored off a steal of second, a passed ball and an infield hit by Herrera. One out later, she would come home on Savannah Ewing’s single to right field for an 8-0 Eagle lead.
Hillery Hinojos singled off the glove of shortstop Brooke Walters to start the third inning. Baeza then singled, and both runners moved up on a passed ball and wild pitch, which also scored Hinojos. After Terrazas’ third walk of the game, Herrera singled to left to score one run, with Terrazas scoring when Kelsey Damron misplayed the ball. A triple down the line in right by Florez made it 12-0, and she scored on another Ewing single. Weinacht would reach on a throwing error by Blue, and after a base hit by Jenny Palomino made it 14-0, the final two runs of the day came home when Tauny DeGrafreid couldn’t hold onto Vanessa Valeriano’s line drive near the right field corner.
With the teams playing a junior varsity game following the varsity contest, both squads only had a few substitutes. Wall put her reserves into the game in the fourth inning, while Crane’s only substitute player, Becky Gonzales, ended up getting the Cranes’ only hit of the day, singling with two outs in the fifth off Herrera. It came following a leadoff error by Ewing on a DeGrafreid grounder, but Herrera was able to preserve the five-inning shutout by getting Blue to ground to Florez at second base to end the game.
“Defensively, we had two errors in the game, but we’ve got to have no errors,” Walls said. “I thought we got a little complacent. They weren’t hitting the ball off Amalie, and when they started putting the ball in play, it caught us off-guard.”
Eagle boys eye improvement after slow start
Pecos Eagles golf coach Kim Anderson is hoping for better results this weekend in Fort Stockton, after his team had better results in the second round of last weekend in the second day of their season-opening Big Spring Invitational.
Pecos shot a 398 at Comanche Springs the first day, and then improved that total by 43 strokes on Saturday at the Big Spring Country Club course, shooting a 355 for a 753 total. That was only geed enough for 21st place out of 23 teams. But Saturday’s score was more in line with the middle of the field at the tournament, which featured four of the Eagles’ five District 3-3A rivals.
“The first day on Friday wind was blowing about 40 mph. It was just blowing about 15 at the country club, and that’s usually a tougher track,” Anderson said.
Zack Morton benefited the most from the better conditions on the second day, cutting his 101 total to 80 on Saturday for a 181 total. Joseph Tarin shot a 94 on Friday and then a 79 on Saturday for a 173 score, while Heath Armstrong shot a 90-89-179 and Frank Deishler had a 113-107-220.
Pecos only had the minimum for golfers available for a team score at Big Spring, and Anderson said he hoped for better results with the addition of Nathan Duke at the Fort Stockton Tournament this weekend.
“Without Duke, we had to take the 107 of our JVer, Deishler. Hopefully this week we’ll get Duke back,” he said. “We’ve had good practices this week, and all of the kids have seen Fort Stockton, so we’ll see where we are better.”
Plainview won the tournament, with a 317-292-609 score, while Midland High was second, with a 320-310-630. Among the other district teams in the tournament, Lamesa was sixth, with a 335-325-650 score, Fort Stockton was 10th, with a 350-330-680; Monahans was 11th, with a 345-343-688; and Greenwood was 22nd, with a 410-379-789.
Seminole was the only 3-3A team not at Big Spring, but Anderson said the Indians would be in the field at Fort Stockton, along with the host Panthers, Monahans and Greenwood.
Pecos’ girls were scheduled to be in Big Spring, but dropped out due to other extracurricular activities. Pecos’ girls will be in Fort Stockton next weekend, while the JV girls were playing an 18-hole tournament in Andrews on Thursday.
Hitters look better for Eagles at scrimmage
Pecos Eagle baseball coach Elias Payan was very happy with his team’s scrimmage effort Monday evening in Seminole, but will be looking at pitchers over the next several days, as the Eagles prepare for their 2006 season opener on Feb. 24 in Ozona.
Pecos’ only varsity scrimmage for the 2006 preseason was against the Yellowjackets in Kermit, and Payan said, “I was very impress with our scrimmage. Our kids played well.
“I was mainly impressed with our hitting. That was one of our weaknesses last year, but we hit the ball well,” said Payan. “We even had two home runs. Edward Valencia and Kenny Rayos hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning.”
“We want to try and street to the kids that what we want is for them to put the ball in play,” he said. “And that’s what we did in the first inning. Isaiah (Rayos) hit the ball with two outs and two strikes to the first baseman. He bobbled it, and Isaiah was safe and then Kenny comes up and hits a home run. Last year we struck out too much and weren’t putting pressure on the other team’s defense.”
Payan said the Eagles did all right on defense, as did their first pitchers. But he added the team would be looking for more pitching going into the Ozona Tournament next weekend.
“Defensively we were pretty consistent with it. I thought for what we’re doing, the defense was fine.” He said. “With pitching, I thought Eddie (Vela) and Edward were looking to get their breaking pitches over, and for the first time out, they did good. Robert Nunez, since he’s a junk ball pitcher, he can get it over all the time, but we’re working with Eddie and Edward.”
“Right now we lost two other pitchers we were counting on in Josh (Anchondo) and Geno (Leos),” said Payan. The two won’t be eligible until at least early March, and the Eagles’ coach added, “We made have to look at Isaiah Rayos, or moving one or two kids up from the Purple (JV) team, so we’ll have enough pitching for the tournament.”
Payan said Pecos would face the Bangs Dragons in their season-opening game at Ozona, starting at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24. They’ll take on the host Lions at 7 p.m. on Friday, while Saturday’s games will start with a 10 a.m. contest against two-time defending District 3-3A champion Presidio.
Pecos girls snare 1st, boys 3rd at powerlifting meet
The Pecos Eagle powerlifting teams had mixed results this past weekend in competition at Fort Stockton, with Pecos’ girls capturing their second straight first place team title, while the Eagle boys finished third in the six-team field.
The girls earned three first place division titles and scored 38 points to beat out the host Prowlers by six points. Pecos boys also won three division titles and finished with 38 points, but wound up four points behind Fort Stockton and 11 in back of first place Monahans at the meet.
Ashley Ornelas lifted a combined 495-pound to win first in the 114-pound weight class, 45 pound ahead of teammate Amanda Contreras. Jessica Trujillo won the 148-pound weight class by five pounds over Fort Stockton’s Klarissa Acosta, with a combined 535 pounds on her bench press, dead lift and squat thrust; and Katherine Ramirez won the 198-pound weight class, lifting 585 pounds, while Maritza Acosta was second, with a 490-pound combined total.
“Ashley Ornelas had personal bests in the squat thrust and bench press,” said coach Fred Howard. Ornelas had a 180-pound squat and a 90-pound bench on Saturday. “Amanda Contreras surpasses her squat and bench press by 10 pounds; Jessica Trujillo improved by 30 pounds and Katherine Ramirez by 60 pounds.”
Tiffany Rodriguez was fourth in the 148-pound weight class, lifting 430 pounds, and Brittaney Rodriguez was second in her division at 181 pounds, with a combined lift of 480 pounds on her three best attempts.
Howard said the boys’ results weren’t as good as for the girls, but Pecos did have a couple of lifters set personal bests.
“We had a few people who struggled,” said Howard. “They had a bad day, but I’ll attribute that to bring off for three weeks.”
The boys again did the best in the higher weight classes, though Ruben Salgado, who had won first at the Eagles’ first two meets of the season, failed at his dead lift on Saturday and dropped to sixth place in his division, the 242-pound weight class. Pecos still took the top two spots there, with Mason Baeza lifting a combined 1120 pounds and Michael Lee 1085, while Salgado had 840 pounds on his bench press and squat thrust.
Chris Navarette won the 275-pound weight class, lifting 1,105 pounds to beat out Ruben Rodriguez of Monahans by 15 pounds, and in the Super Heavyweight division, Jesse Prieto was third wit a combined 890-pound lift.
“Mason had a 40-pound improvement and Chris improved 65 pounds on his numbers,” Howard said.
Pecos had one winner in the lower weight classes, Elias Valenzuela, who took the 123-pound title with a combined 590-pound total. At 165 pounds, Lamberto Herrera was fourth, with a 940-pound total, and Phillip Williams placed sixth, with a combined 850 pounds. The Eagles also had three ‘B’ team lifters place, with Isaac Salgado finishing sixth in the 198-pound division with an 810-poound total and Bryan Navarette and Jimmy Martinez seventh and eighth at 220 pounds, with lifts of 800 and 735 pounds respectively.
The Eagles will be off this week, before going to Kermit on Feb. 25, where Howard was the Yellowjackets’ powerlifting coach for the previous six seasons. “It’s the last qualifying weekend, so you’ll have the best powerlifting qualifiers in the area there, trying to get ready for the regional meet,” he said.
Pecos Enterprise
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