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It was one for the ages, Torres dominates
Gaona goes yard, Villalobos clutch, Panthers claw out one run win
A.D. Ibarra
-San Antonio
It was truly one for the ages. On one side, the O'Connor Panthers scratch out three runs in the third, two of them earned, on four hits, but Eagle ace Devon Torres would buckle down like the true warrior he has been, the stalwart of the Eagle pitching staff who left it all on the field to hold off the Panther rally with men on second and third to get out of the inning when Juan Lopez made a play to get us out of the nightmarish third.
O'Connor Panther pitcher Justin Garcia who knocked off district champion Laredo United last week did not manage one strikeout throughout the contest, however, what the Panthers did have were some outstanding defensive plays which were indicative of the level of play you need to have in a one game series for the right to go to the hallowed grounds of the State Baseball Tournament in Austin.
But the Eagles did not stay behind in this department as #19 Eric Gonzalez made play after play at the shortstop position, but the gem of the evening was RJ3, Eagle second baseman RJ Ruiz who made a major league play on a ball hit to his right, his FAR right making the grab and immediately skying into the air in order to have the leverage to make a fabulous throw to big Mando Lopez at first for the amazing 4-3 putout.
A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
A report of a van traveling with a large cargo was reported to local law enforcement officials which may have come from US Border Patrol who work diligently to secure the area in and around the Rio Grande. A chase ensued followed by a unified search for the suspicious vehicle which culminated in the detention of at least four men. When called in for backup which ended up being the Eagle Pass Police Department, Maverick County Sheriff's Department officials and even DEA, it was speculated that the contents of the van could be illicit narcotics. A van white in color, which officers had lost visual contact with momentarily was found near the parking lot of Mall de las Aguilas. When finally cornered, to the officers' collective surprise, a large number of what seemed to be illegal aliens began to file out of the vehicle, many making a run for the surrounding hills thus beginning a chase by foot where they were later detained.
A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
After a long and drawn out executive session of the Special Meeting held on Tuesday, Eagle Pass City Council took no action in reference to the personnel issue of filling the position of City Manager vacated by Daniel Valenzuela last October to take the same position in San Angelo. The field of applicants which at one point stood at eight, has now come down to two finalists for the position, Former EPISD Superintendent Jesús Sanchez and Interim City Manager Gloria Barrientos who will be interviewed on June 18th.
By Rey Sifuentes Jr. (May 25, 2013)
A mere 12 hours after winning game one at the wee hours of Saturday morning, Eagle Pass High School’s baseball team completed its two-game sweep over San Antonio Johnson by edging the Jaguars 8-7 during game two held in Alice early Saturday afternoon.
Both teams were previously scheduled to split their best of three games Region IV semifinal playoff series between Eagle Pass (on Friday) and San Antonio (Saturday), but heavy rains forced them to instead meet in Alice in an opening game which began at 11:30 p.m. on Friday night.
A.D. Ibarra
-Alice, TX
The Eagle Pass Eagles had to wait until midnight to begin their three-game series against the San Antonio Ladybird Johnson Jaguars Friday evening or Saturday morning in Alice. Devon Torres pitched a complete game five-hitter, big Juan Lopez was a triple away from the cycle with a double, a home run and a single and catcher Diego Gaona hit another shot to dead center off of Jag starter Jared Vick to catapult the eagles to a one game lead in the 2013 Region IV Semis.
Let's go back to Thursday when Juan Lopez, Diego Gaona, Javy Cardona and Jacoup Roiz come on 24 Deportivo where they begin to visualize themselves being successful at the plate talking defence and distance as Lopez was asked to recall one of his dingers earlier this season and we remember Diego Gaona's massive HR against loop leading Laredo United against the wind at the EPISD Baseball Complex. Jacoup Roiz recalled the play which tied the game vs Sharyland in the bottom of the 7th and Javy Cardona discussed his hitting performance on Friday which led to Coach Barton Bickerton pulling Tres Barrera.
Cut to Alice, Texas where we were forced to seek shelter from a storm system which was clearly evident on radars and dopplers across South Texas. Game 1, initially scheduled to take place right here in the comfort of our very own home, but a decision was made at 1:30 PM when EPISD grounds crews informed A.D. Edward Graf that they would not be able to get our field ready to play on by 7:00 after 2" of rain fell 12 hours earlier.
The availability of the stadium in Alice compounded by the fact that in Alice, they have a tarp to cover the infield in case of rain, the Eagles and and a good contingent of fans followed each other to the Rio Grande Valley.
This is how it all went down in Game 1.
KINL's Ruben Valadez, shortly after the game began, referred to this game as the "insomnia Special" as the rains came down in Alice and crews worked on the field and impeccably got the field ready for play. Eagle Pass' Devon Torres rose to the challenge of a big game by striking out leadoff hitter Vic Mireles, gave up a double to Connor Mitchell, but got out of the inning by getting Mark Whitehead to pop up to right and Tanner Whol to ground out to #19 Eric Gonzalez.
What we saw in the Eagle Pass Eagles was a formidable offensive scoring machine firing on all cylinders as Eric Gonzalez threatened to score in the very first inning when he drew a leadoff walk, Torres bunted him over and Gaona sacrificed him to third, but starter Jared Vick was able to do what Sharyland couldn't, get big Mando Lopez out as Lopez grounded out to third base.
Torres proceeded to strike out the side getting Randy Stewart, Jared Vick and Zack Hamel.
What would happen next would reaffirm my previous statement in reference to the aggressive nature of taking advantage of performing in the face of adversity on the biggest of stages with a berth in the State Tournament on the line.
Juan Lopez doubles to right center field with a line drive over the second baseman, Javy Cardona base hits to right and the Jag right fielder throws an absolute strike to catcher Alex Hernandez. The pitcher looked as if he was going to cut it off, but the ball falls right in Hernandez' glove, but a hard slide by Lopez jars the ball lose, 1-0 EP. Jacoup Roiz base hits to left and Kevin Chisum hits a grounder to the second base side where they get Roiz, but a bad throw to first allows Chisum to get on. Kevin steals second on a very alert jump, then Eric Gonzalez comes through with a double goes to third on another errant throw and ends up scoring on the three RBI hit scoring Cardona, Chisum and Gonzalez.
Zach Smith grounds out to Ruiz at second in a bang bang play and gets up arguing. Smith would be ejected from the game. Mando Lopez would then make a sliding catch on a pop up by Tanner Scarborough, the ex McAllister All-Star who was the star of the Little League World Series and even had a Krispy Kreme named after his nickname "Scary." Lopez would influence the next play as well as Torres gets Nick Mireles to go down swinging, but Gaona drops the ball and throws to Ruiz covering first and Mireles runs in to a brick wall in Mando Lopez for out number three.
Juan Lopez would take a Jared Vick fastball in the bottom of the third, and put it on the other side of the fence as the Eagle slugger made it 5-0 with his shot to left.
In the top of the fourth, Connor gesell the son of Head Coach Gordy Gesell, who Eagle Pass Sports Central's Conrad Perez told us he played against in the famous Spanish American Baseball League, opens the fourth with a hit and goes to second on a passed ball then a base hit by Mark Whitehead to center would've scored Gesell, but an awesome throw from Kevin Chisum causes the Jag coach to hold the runner at third. Gaona's snap throw gets away from Gonzalez, but RJ Ruiz alertly covers. An overall great display of fundamental baseball.
Tanner Whol falls victim to a great pitch by Torres and a better block by Gaona for the first out on a cutting fastball moving away from the left hander. Torres gets Randy Stewart to ground out to Ruiz allowing one run to score, but Devon would get Jared Vick swinging for his sixth strikeout of the game to end the inning. Torres gets out of the inning allowing only one run and striking out two.
Diego Gaona would hit a massive home run to center field which according to Moris Libson Jr. was approximately 435 Ft. then Mando Lopez base hits to left and Olexis Gutierrez comes in to run. Juan Lopez gets yet another hit scoring the swift Gutierrez all the way from first to put the Eagles up 7-2.
Torres would get out of the next inning after Mark whitehead get on on a drag bunt and goes to second on a bad throw when Tanner Whol grounds out to Lopez at first and Whitehead moves to third and scores on a fly to center by Randy Stewart, nut Devon had Vick's number and rung him up again for out number three.
The Eagles faced a new pitcher in the sixth, but Jacoup Roiz would draw a walk, as would pinch hitter Jack Acuña and Fernando Garza would come in to run when Eric Gonzalez would walk, then Diego Gaona base hits and brings in two, then Juan Lopez walks and RJ Ruiz base hits the winning runs in for the Eagles to take the Game 1 victory 13-3!
For Eagle Pass it was 13 runs on 13 hits and one error. For the Jaguars it was three runs on four hits and four big errors.
The two teams squared off on Saturday, but results were not available at press time although it began to rain again in Alice on Saturday morning.
Press Release
-Eagle Pass
On Thursday May 23, 2013, at approximately 5:04 pm, Maverick County Deputies were summoned to Lowe's Store in reference to two possible wanted persons.
Deputies responded to said location in which two male subjects identified themselves as Eric Diaz and Jesus Olivares.
Both said male subjects were inside a Red in color Nissan Sentra. A traffic stop was attempted on said vehicle but refused to stop.
A vehicle pursuit was engaged in which said vehicle started from Bibb St. heading southbound. Said vehicle then turned on Yota St, Kiriaka St., then attempted to turn on Chorgas St. but crashed into a large tree.
Fortunately, the tree prevented the vehicle from crashing into the home where the large tree withstood the impact of the oncoming car.
Olivares was detained on the spot. Diaz fled the scene on foot in which a foot pursuit was engaged with the neighbor.
Diaz was later apprehended and arrested on the 1500 Block of Paseo Encinal St.
Both male subjects were confirmed as wanted persons. Both were arrested and transported to the Tom Bowles Detention Center for process. Case remains under investigation.
A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
Eagle Pass and Maverick County had some significant rainfall on Friday morning as a huge swath of clouds passed through our area at approximately 7:45 A.M. causing flooding in some areas and the re-location of the Region IV Semi Final matchup between the SA Johnson Jaguars and the Eagle Pass Eagles which was moved to Alice.
"Trailing thunderstorms over San Antonio can bring a quick 1-4 inches of rain and flash flooding this afternoon," AccuWeather Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity said.
In general, torrential downpours appear to be the biggest concern with the storms that erupted across west-central and southern Texas through Friday evening.
According to Jose Davila of the Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District, the Head Gates had 1 1/2" of rain, Quemado had 2", Eagle Pass North had 2", Eagle Pass South had 2" and El Indio had 2" as of 2:00 P.M. on Friday.
Eagle Pass experienced power failures throughout the city and flooding in low lying areas. Several accidents were reported throughout the downpour and police, sheriff and emergency crews were kept busy as the much needed rain hit Eagle Pass.
A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
Tuesday, May 21st was the date set aside to pass out scholarships to the students of CC Winn High School as Principal Jesús Díaz-Wever informed The News Gram that a total of $351,000.00 in scholarships were awarded to 126 students who will be walking the stage at the Cozel Foster Veteran's Memorial Stadium on June 7th.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the contributors for graciously providing the funds to help our graduating seniors to continue with their higher education," stated the principal of the south side high school, "I would also like to thank our board members and central office administration for always helping our students with what ever is needed. Thanks are in order for our parents and of course our teaching staff and counselors for assisting our students."
Lorena Alvarez is the liaison for scholarships at the school which awarded a total of 246 scholarships from 115 contributors before a crowd of approximately 500 people at the new EPISD Fine Arts Center's main stage.
All who attended agreed that the event was well-organized and went very smoothly in comparison with other years.
With this, along with the awards to the Top 5% and graduation, the most important night of the school year culminated in a sea of flashes and felicitations from friends and family members as the future leaders of our great nation were appropriately honored on a stage worthy of their accomplishments.
The Eagle Pass News Gram congratulates the recipients and their parents on their accomplishments and Godspeed in all their future academic goals.
Commencement will be on June 7th at 8:00 P.M. at Foster-Veteran's Memorial Football Stadium.