Eagles rebound in 4-5A with victory

By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer

The Abilene Eagles faced their first true "must-win" situation of the season Saturday, and they handled it like a playoff-tested ballclub.

Of course since they aren't, that could bode well for the future.

Abilene High scored eight early runs, John Dallies struck out nine and the Eagles got back on track with an 8-1 win over San Angelo Central at Blackburn Field.

The victory snapped a two-game losing streak that had seen the Eagles go from first place in the District 4-5A baseball standings to tied for third in a span of two days. Both those losses were by one run - 7-6 to Cooper and 4-3 to Midland Lee - and had the Eagles reeling a little bit.

"This was a big game for a lot of reasons," AHS head coach Jim Reese said. "We needed to be intense and we were."

With the win, the Eagles jumped back in front of Central and into a tie for second place with Lee, which beat Odessa High, 4-2. Both AHS and Lee are 6-3, one-half game behind league-leading Cooper. Abilene High has another big game coming up Tuesday at Odessa Permian.
Central, meanwhile, falls back to fourth place at 5-3.

"I really don't think this loss hurts us that much with the way the district is shaping up," Central head coach Rod Moore said. "Anybody can beat anybody, and we're as capable of winning four straight games as anybody else."

To do that, the Bobcats will have to get much better pitching down the stretch than they got early in Saturday's ballgame.

Jay Walling, the surprise pick as the starter over Neil Justice, was roughed up by the Eagles in little more than an inning of work. He gave up six runs - all earned - on five hits and didn't record an out in the second inning before leaving the contest.

Walling entered the game with the league's lowest ERA at 1.62, but that didn't last long. When he left, it had risen almost three full points to 4.50.

"Walling just didn't have it today," Moore said. "He's the kind of guy who has to keep the ball down, and he didn't do it. And if there were ever a day he needed to keep the ball down it was today with the way the wind was blowing."

AHS rightfielder Chris Cortinaz took advantage of that wind in the first inning, turning around a hanging breaking ball and depositing it some 380 feet over the fence in left-center field. His three-run bomb in the first inning gave the Eagles a quick 3-0 lead.

It was the the second-straight two-out hit of the inning for the Eagles, who got a walk from Jeff Byrd and a single from John Lackey in front of the Cortinaz home run.

"I was patient at the plate and got the pitch I wanted," Cortinaz said. "Then it got up in that wind (blowing out at around 20 mph) and it carried out. It was just one of those days where the wind helped a little bit."

The Eagles put up five more runs in the second inning, three of them credited to Walling and two more to Justice.

Cody Copeland got it started when he blooped a two-run single into right field that drove in Jacob Martinez and Pascual Mirelez. Then with one out, Lackey drove in Copeland and Justin Reese with a single to center field that made the score 7-0.

Cortinaz then banged a 1-0 offering from Justice into left field to drive in Jeff Byrd to make the score 8-0.

"It was extremely important for us to score early and get a lead," Coach Reese said. "We had several guys get key hits, including some guys who had some critical two-out hits."

For Moore, it didn't matter which pitcher he used because neither got the job done early in the game.
"Abilene High did a great job at the plate," he said. "They hit Jay hard, and they hit Neil hard, too. They're not at the top of the district for nothing, and they showed it today with their bats."

The eight runs were more than enough for Dallies, who improved to 9-0 overall and 4-0 in district play. He struck out nine overall and lowered his ERA from 3.81 to 3.21.

He struck out a pair in the first inning, one in the second, two in the third, two more in the fourth, one in the fifth and one in the seventh. Three of the nine were caught looking, going down on a new sidearm fastball that Dallies unveiled against the Bobcats.

"I usually use it when I warm up before the game," Dallies said. "I started working with it this week to use in the game. It (the three-quarter delivery) just gives the hitter another look, and it doesn't put a lot of pressure on my arm."

Dallies was never in any serious trouble as he scattered four hits over seven complete innings.
"John did an excellent job," Moore said. "He just wore us out. He's gotten better with his off-speed pitch, and that's the difference in him this year and the last two years. He's whipped us twice this year and given up eight hits; that's a job well done."

The same could be said of the Eagles, who took a little of the pressure off themselves before Tuesday's big game at Permian.

"There was a little pressure building," Coach Reese said. "I tried to downplay it, and I think the guys handled it real well. I'm sure Permian will be ready to play, but so will we."