|
Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Friday, March 24, 2006
Seventh grade netters sweep girls top spots
The Pecos Eagle junior high tennis team picked up a couple of division titles this past weekend, while hosting their own five-team tournament at the Pecos High School tennis courts, though rain kept the finals of a couple of divisions from being played on Saturday.
Dakota Long won the seventh grade girls singles title, and the team of Kayla Natividad and Carissa Cerna took the seventh grade girls doubles titles, both times winning in the finals over their teammates.
Long defatted teammate Meagan Fuentes in the tournament finals, after victories over Monahans’ Vianca Guzman, Crane’s Anna Cordova and the Loboes’ Jennifer Willhelm in her opening matches. Fuentes advanced to the finals with wins over Greenwood’s Kelsey Yow and Monahans’ Amanda Calder. Pecos’ other two entries, Hillary Flores and Lenora Blanchard, lost in the quarterfinals, Flores to Cordova and Blanchard to Patricia Kingston of Greenwood.
Cerna and Natividad downed Brittany Rayos and Cheyana Arenivas, after wins over Weaver and Mirales of Crane, Hills and Hills of Greenwood and Kesey and Tester of Monahans. Rayos and Arenivas beat Walton and Ramirez of Greenwood, Cox and King of Crane and Eagle teammates Christina and Diana Munoz to advance to the finals.
In the eighth grade girls singles division, Priscilla Sotelo advanced to the semifinals before losing. She defeated Crane’s Erika Lemmon and Rocio Chavarria, then lost to Lara Phipps of Monahans. Megan Lopez lost to Phipps in her first match, then defeated Greenwood’s Selena Martinez before losing to Renteria of Monahans. Kiara Gutierrez lost in the quarterfinals to Gracie Billings of Crane, while Patricia Wilson fell to Summer Mills of Greenwood.
In eighth grade girls doubles, the Eagles had one team, Samaguez and Diaz, which won their opening match over Paisley and Baker of Greenwood, then lost to Acker and Harvey of Monahans. On the boys’ side, Matthew Rodriguez and Josh Boicourt lost both of their matches, while the Eagles had no entry in the seventh grade boys doubles division.
In seventh grade boys’ singles, Juan Carlos Munoz advanced to the third place match before it was halted due t rain. He downed Midland Christian’s David Gallivan and Greenwood’s Ryan Knapp before losing to Loren Miller of Monahans. The other singles player for Pecos, Taylor Hardwick lost both of his matches.
In the eighth grade bracket, Noah Munoz defeated Fernando Velasco of Crane, then lost to Wheeler of Midland Christian.
Junior high swimmers win at Monahans
The Pecos Eagle junior high swim team came up with wins on the boys and girls sides against the Monahans Loboes on Saturday, in a dual meet at the Monahans High School pool, while the Loboes’ Age Group teams defeated the Eagles in their head-to-head match up.
Pecos’ junior high boys edged Monahans by a 150-139 score, while the Eagle girls scored a 197-105 win over the Loboes. At the age-group level, Monahans won on the girls’ side, 131-74, while they took the boys’ division by a 294-73 margin.
“I felt that both the junior high team and the age group teams did an exceptional job at this meet,” said Eagles’ coach Evan Bates. “There were three junior high records broke and three age group records broken at this meet.”
Bates said the junior high records came from Alyson Reynolds and Conner Armstrong, while Lauren Elliott and Dana Conger had the records at the age-group level.
Reynolds had a 32.37 time to set a record in the 50-yard butterfly and won the 50-yard breaststroke with a 37.81 time. Armstrong won the 100-yard individual medley with a 1:12.60 time.
Elliott set two record, winning the 12-and-under 50-yard backstroke with a 36.92 time and the 100 individual medley with a time of 1:22.53. Conger’s record was in the 12-and-under 25-yard backstroke, with a 21.99 time.
Reynolds also won the 200-yard freestyle with a 2:10.79 time, while Armstrong took the 50-yard freestyle with a 28.52 time. In the relays, the two, along with Tiffany Hunter and Jessica Dickenson, won the 200 medley with a 2:30.59 time, and took the 200 freestyle relay with a 2:18.85 time. The ‘B’ relay of Adriana Roman, Abby Valenzuela and Maggie and Anatalia Hernandez placed third in both relays.
In the other girls’ junior high results, Anatalia Hernandez was second in the 200 free; Roman was fifth, Hunter was sixth, Maggie Hernandez seventh and Valenzuela eighth in the 50 free; Dickenson was third, Hunter fourth and Maggie Hernandez fifth in the 50 fly; Anatalia Hernandez was second, Roman third and Valenzuela sixth in the 100 free; Anatalia Hernandez was third, Dickenson was fifth and Valenzuela sixth in the 100 free; Roman was third and Hunter was fourth in the 100 medley; and Dickenson was second and Maggie Hernandez was fifth in the 50-yard breaststroke.
At the age-group level, Elliott also won the 200-yard freestyle and Conger took the 50 free. Rayann Box won the 50 fly with a time of 49.78, which was .03 seconds ahead of Conger. Box was second in the 100-yard freestyle and third in the 50-yard backstroke. The Eagles did not field relay teams at the age-group level.
For the boys, Gus Mendoza, Sammy Sandoval, Carlos Navarro and Derek Teague won the 200-yard freestyle with a 2:08.06 time and placed second in the 200-medley relay. Teague won the 200 yard freestyle with a 2:22.93 time, while Navarro placed second; took the 100 yard free in 1:03.90, with Edward Navarro second, Omar Medina fifth and Sandoval sixth; and won the 50-yard breaststroke with a 36.86 time, with Edward Navarro fourth. The other first place finish for Pecos was by Mendoza, who won the 50-yard backstroke with a 35.71 time, while Medina was fourth and Justin Gonzalez fifth.
In the other races, Sandoval was fourth, Edward Navarro fifth, Medina seventh and Gonzalez seventh in the 50 free; Mendoza was second, Carlos Navarro third and Gonzalez fifth in the 50 fly; and Mendoza was second, Carlos Navarro third and Sandoval fourth in the 100 medley.
The boys age group team got first place finishes from Bradley Shaw and R.J. Lozano. Shaw won the 100 freestyle with a 1:13.90 time and took the 100-yard medley with a 1:26.62 time; while Lozano picked up wins in the 50 fly, with a 40.39 time, the 50 backstroke with a 41.28 time, and the 50 yard breaststroke, where his 45.17 time beat Shaw by .21 second.
The other swimmer for Pecos, Mario Olivas, placed second in the 50 free, the 50 butterfly and the 100 individual medley.
Pecos struggles at bat in win over Marfa
The Pecos Eagles started fast in their non-district game softball against the Marfa Shorthorns on Tuesday night, but the Eagles ended up needing a late comeback to force extra innings, before pulling out a 5-4 victory over Marfa in a non-district game at the Pecos High School softball field.
“Our hitting is still going south, but we’ll work our way out of it,” said Eagles’ coach Tammy Walls, whose team moved into a tie for third place in the District 3-3A standings with Greenwood and Seminole while taking a break from district play.
Gabby Garcia scored on a double steal and an error in the seventh inning to tie the game, after Marfa had rallied from a 3-0 deficit after the first inning to take a 4-3 lead, and the Eagles would win on Claire Weinacht’s hit with two out in the eighth inning, allowing Cassandra Terrazas to score.
The Eagles had taken advantage of a couple of errors by Marfa in the first inning to score three runs off starter Leah McWilliams. Garcia reached on the first of the errors and then scored on a Jessica Florez single, while Herrera, who reached on a bunt single, came around when Florez’ hit to right got by Erica Cruz for a two-base error. Florez then scored on Savannah Ewing’s base hit.
Herrera started on the mound for the Eagles, and was relieved by Garcia, who had not pitched since the start of district play. Walls said the freshman struggled with her control, as Marfa tied the game in the fifth and then took the lead in the sixth inning.
“We had three walks and an error,” Walls said of the fifth inning. “The defense didn’t play a bad game, but when we changed pitchers, it changed the timing of the game.”
Marfa would take a 4-3 lead on a Trish Salcido single that scored Jackie Hernandez, who walked. Garcia then walked in the seventh and went to third on a single by Herrera, who then stole second, with Garcia then stealing home on the throw to second. She ended up on third on an error, but was left stranded.
The victory improved the Eagles’ season record to 16-5 going into Friday’s 5 p.m. home game against Greenwood, which lost at Monahans on Tuesday by a 3-0 score. It was the second straight district loss for the Rangerettes, who fell at home by a 5-4 score to Seminole, after opening with wins over Presidio and Lamesa. Greenwood defeated Pecos both times last season, and are the defending District 3-3A champs.
Indians’ Martinez shuts down Eagles
They don’t allow you to bank any runs in baseball for a rainy day- or in the case of the Pecos Eagles’ Tuesday night game against the Seminole Indians, a windy one. If they could, the Eagles would have saved some of their runs from last Friday’s rout of Monahans to use against Seminole.
For the second straight District 3-3A home game, the Eagle bats were kept in check, this time by Indians’ pitcher Michael Martinez, who held Pecos to just five hits and was helped by three double plays, as he won a pitchers duel over the Eagles’ combination of Eddie Vela and Edward Valencia by a 1-0 final score.
Corbin McDaniel’s fourth inning triple with two outs scored courtesy runner Michael Guzman, after Martinez led off the inning with a single against Vela, who allowed just three hits in five innings of work. Martinez surrendered five hits on the night, including two in the first inning that put runners on the corners with one out, and a leadoff double in the seventh by Valencia. But both times, the Eagles were unable to get the key hit to get on the board.
Pecos played far better than in their district opener a week earlier, a 6-1 home loss to Fort Stockton, but again were flatter playing on their own field than they had been last Friday in Monahans, when they had two runs less than five minutes into the game and ended up winning by a 24-5 final score.
“Seminole made the plays,” said Eagles’ coach Elias Payan. “We hit the ball hard and put it in play, but we hit it right at them and they turned the double plays on us.”
Shortstop Trey Curiel turned two of the three DPs, the first on Kenny Rayos’ hard grounder in the first, after Josh Anchondo and Jose Chavez singled with one out in the first, and would do the same on another grounder in the sixth just to the left of second base by Anchondo, following a lead-off single by Vela. Chavez then singled, but Martinez got Rayos to line out to second baseman Chris Dagley to end the inning.
The other double play was due to a lack of execution on the part of the Eagles. Curiel couldn’t handle Valencia’s grounder in the hole between second and third base to open the second inning, but when Payan had the next batter, Jonathan Garcia, try to lay down a sacrifice bunt, he bunted it on the fly back to the mound, where Martinez caught it and then doubled Valencia off first base.
“Jonathan didn’t execute on that play, but it wasn’t just his fault. Edward took off running as if it was a bunt-and-run and didn’t look back,” said Payan, who elected to have Garcia swing away in the seventh, after Valencia opened the inning by doubling past McDaniel in left field.
Garcia hit a line drive on the first pitch from Martinez, but right at centerfielder Drew Phillips, and courtesy runner Miguel Estrada was unable to advance to third. Martinez then struck out Chris Garnto on a 3-2 pitch, and got Isaiah Rayos to ground out to first baseman Blake Tittle to end the game.
“I have a lot of faith in Jonathan, but I just think in that type of situation we need to think a lot more about what we’re doing, and try to hit the ball to the right side to advance the runner,” said Payan. “That’s the mental part. We’re just not doing the little things we need to do to win.”
Vela was in trouble once before Seminole finally scored, when Fernando Dominguez reached on an infield hit and Dagley walked in the second inning. But with a 3-2 count and two out on batter Fabien Pinon, Vela caught Dominguez breaking for third too early and caught him in a rundown, to end the inning.
Vela, 2-3, retired the side in order in the fifth, but all on hard-hit balls, and Payan replaced him with Valencia to open the sixth inning. “I could tell Eddie wasn’t on tonight, and Edward hadn’t thrown in a couple of weeks,” he said. “They were starting to get some good looks at Eddie, and Edward came on and did a good job.”
Valencia did allow a leadoff single by Dominguez in the seventh, but McDaniel was thrown out trying to steal by Garnto after forcing Dominguez at second, keeping the Eagles within a run going into their final at-bat.
Aside from their problems scoring on their home field, Pecos also continued to have problems scoring against Seminole. It was the fifth straight win by the Indians over the Eagles dating back to the 2004 season, during which time the Eagles have only managed two earned runs in 32 innings against Indians’ pitching, and all but six of those innings with Curiel or Martinez on the mound.
The Eagles are now 1-2 in District 3-3A play and 13-4 on the season, while the Indians are 2-1 on the year, with a win over Greenwood and a loss to Presidio. Those two teams played in Pecos prior to Tuesday’s night’s game, with the Blue Devils rallying for a 4-2 win over the Rangers.
Pecos played Greenwood next, on Friday at the Rangers’ new field, which will also have lights for the first time. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start, and Payan said Anchondo, 2-1, would get the start for the Eagles.
Eagles win consolation titles at MHS tourney
The Pecos Eagles tennis team picked up two consolation titles last weekend in tournament play at Monahans, and will be in Midland this Saturday, for matches against Midland Trinity and Sweetwater.
Imari Ornelas and Crystal Ikeler won consolation in girls doubles, while Francisco Ornelas took the boys’ singles consolation title. He defeated Lee Roy Valerio of Fort Davis, 8-5, after wins in the consolation quarterfinals and semifinals following a first round loss, while Ornelas and Ikeler defeated the team of Murgaia and Solis, 8-2, after opening with a loss to Murray and Smith from Monahans.
Pecos also had two fourth place finishes, in girls singles and boys doubles. Amber Pando placed fourth in singles, winning over Hannah Carter or Monahans, 6-4, 6-1, then falling to Wink’s Lynsey Chavez in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-1, and losing the third place match to Greenwood’s Alyshia Campbell. Also in that bracket, Janette Perea lost both of her matches, as did Domicia Marquez.
In boys’ doubles, Derek Barron and Paul Zubeldia won their first round match over Monahans’ Day and Heslin, then lost to Dawson and Chandler in the semifinals and fell in the third place match to Orona and Nichols of Monahans, 7-5, 6-1.
Ortiz said after Saturday’s matches with Trinity and Sweetwater, he would be at a meeting next Monday to determine the seedings for the District 3-3A tournament, which will also be in Monahans. However, Ortiz said the date of the tournament has been moved up, to April 3-4.
“There is some other UIL event that conflicted with tennis, so we moved it up to Monday and Tuesday,” Ortiz said.
Eagles win consolation titles at MHS tourney
The Pecos Eagles tennis team picked up two consolation titles last weekend in tournament play at Monahans, and will be in Midland this Saturday, for matches against Midland Trinity and Sweetwater.
Imari Ornelas and Crystal Ikeler won consolation in girls doubles, while Francisco Ornelas took the boys’ singles consolation title. He defeated Lee Roy Valerio of Fort Davis, 8-5, after wins in the consolation quarterfinals and semifinals following a first round loss, while Ornelas and Ikeler defeated the team of Murgaia and Solis, 8-2, after opening with a loss to Murray and Smith from Monahans.
Pecos also had two fourth place finishes, in girls singles and boys doubles. Amber Pando placed fourth in singles, winning over Hannah Carter or Monahans, 6-4, 6-1, then falling to Wink’s Lynsey Chavez in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-1, and losing the third place match to Greenwood’s Alyshia Campbell. Also in that bracket, Janette Perea lost both of her matches, as did Domicia Marquez.
In boys’ doubles, Derek Barron and Paul Zubeldia won their first round match over Monahans’ Day and Heslin, then lost to Dawson and Chandler in the semifinals and fell in the third place match to Orona and Nichols of Monahans, 7-5, 6-1.
Ortiz said after Saturday’s matches with Trinity and Sweetwater, he would be at a meeting next Monday to determine the seedings for the District 3-3A tournament, which will also be in Monahans. However, Ortiz said the date of the tournament has been moved up, to April 3-4.
“There is some other UIL event that conflicted with tennis, so we moved it up to Monday and Tuesday,” Ortiz said.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
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 2003-04 by Pecos Enterprise
|
