Chihuahuas end three game skid

Starting pitcher Juan Pablo throws a fast ball in the first inning.

Javier Cortez, Sports Editor • August 19, 2014

In their second to last home stand of the season, the Chihuahuas ended the eight game stand and three game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Memphis Redbirds.

Starting back on Aug.12, the Chihuahuas were starting one of their hardest and longest home stands of the season. The Chihuahuas would be going up against two of the best teams in all of the Pacific Coast League. The Nashville Sounds and Memphis Redbirds have been at the top of the American Southern division all year and are poised to make deep postseason runs, despite the Chihuahua’s recent futility they have played both teams close throughout the season.

After splitting the four game series with Nashville, first place Memphis was next up to bat in another four game series. The Chihuahuas lost the first three games by a combined four runs, and going into the last game of the series, the Redbirds were looking for the sweep.

Typical of the Chihuahuas all season long, a sweep would not be in the cards for the Redbirds. A 6-2 win, with a four run fifth inning secured the win for the Chihuahuas. Shortstop Tyler Greene did the majority of the work offensively for the Chihuahuas, but struggled defensively.

The game for Greene was a paradox— in the first inning he committed an error on a line drive that blew past his glove and let the runner advance to second on lazy fielding. In his first at-bat he made amends with a solo homerun straight to center field.

The up and down game didn’t stop there, in the second inning Greene committed another error, which contributed to the Redbirds first run of the game. Three innings later he once again made amends, bringing home three runners on a basses loaded triple, to give the Chihuahuas a four run lead.

Relief pitcher, Jerry Sullivan, finished the night off in style with four consecutive strikeouts to end the game and seal the win for the Chihuahuas.

The win was overshadowed though by accomplishment that couldn’t have been done without the fans. With another sellout of 8,198 fans the Chihuahuas and Southwest University Park have now welcomed more than 500,000 fans, 501,186 fans to be exact. Also, the Chihuahuas are now the most liked minor league baseball team on Facebook with 108,000 likes. The Chihuahuas have sold out 43 of their 62 home games this season—there are five more home games in the Chihuahua’s inaugural season.

Javier Cortez may be reached at [email protected].

About the Contributors

Javier Cortez, Staff Reporter

Javier Cortez is a staff reporter for The Prospector. He is a senior multimedia journalism major, with a minor in English Rhetoric. Javier was born and raised in El Paso, TX and before coming to UTEP in the summer of 2012, he graduated from Irvin High School, where he was a four-year varsity tennis player, a member of student council and a class officer for his graduating class. He has also worked for the El Paso Diablos as a sports information intern on their media relations team. In his spare time, Javier loves to write columns for the perspectives section in the school newspaper—whether it is sports, pop culture, religion, and society he loves to write about it. To go along with writing, Javier loves reading anything about sports, religion, and non-fiction.

Michaela Roman, Editor-in-Chief

Michaela is a Senior Digital Media Production major at The University of Texas at El Paso. As the Editor-in-Chief, and former Photo Editor of The Prospector, she has learned to stay organized, manage a staff of writers and photographers, meet deadlines, cover events and network with others. She also has freelance experience and a personal photography business. Michaela aspires to work as an editor for a large media outlet and one day go to graduate school to teach photojournalism.