Mexican Matchups: Games of 1/15

Day four of the semi-finals.  A big fifth inning carries Hermosillo.  All thirteen runs came on homers in Navojoa.

HERMOSILLO 7, LOS MOCHIS 4 IN LOS MOCHIS

Hermosillo:  Zelous Wheeler (Yankees) was 2-for-4 with a walk and two doubles, scoring three times and driving in one.  Yunesky Sanchez was 2-for-3 with two walks, scoring once and driving in one.  Edgar Gonzalez pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits and one walk with one strikeout.

Los Mochis:  Juan Carlos Gamboa (Mets) was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Jake Fox was 1-for-4 with a home run, his second.  Hector Neris (Philadelphia) pitched two shutout innings, allowing two hits and no walks with one strikeout.

The game:  There was no scoring in the first three innings.  Each team tallied once in the fourth.  In the fifth, Hermosillo struck for four to take control of the game.  Jerry Owens singled in one, Wheeler doubled in one, and Heber Gomez doubled in two.  There was no more scoring until the ninth, when Hermosillo got two more to go ahead 7-1,  Los Mochis scored three in the bottom of the ninth to give them hope, but the tying run never got past the on-deck circle.

NAVOJOA 8, MEXICALI 5 IN NAVOJOA

Mexicali:  Ben Guez (Detroit) was 3-for-4 with a walk, a double, and two home runs, his second and third.  Brad Snyder (Texas) was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Juan Omar Espinoza pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and no walks with one strikeout.

Navojoa:  Alejandro Gonzalez was 3-for-4 with a double and two home runs (his second and third), scoring three times and driving in three.  Luis Fonseca was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer.  Ozzie Mendez struck out two in two shutout innings, allowing four hits and one walk.

The game:  Oscar Robles homered in the top of the first to give Mexicali a 1-0 lead.  Navojoa came back in the bottom of the first on a two-run homer by John Lindsey to lead 2-1 and added a run in the second on a Gonzalez homer to make it 3-1.  Mexicali got two homers in the third, a solo shot by Guez and a two-run homer by Snyder, to go ahead 4-3.  Navojoa got all three runs back in the fourth on a three-run homer by Fonseca to go back in front 6-4.  There was no more scoring in the seventh, when Guez hit his second homer to cut the lead to 6-5.  In the eighth, Gonzalez hit his second homer, a two-run shot to make the score 8-5.  The last seven Mexicali batters were retired.

PLAYOFF SERIES

Hermosillo and Los Mochis are tied, two games each.
Navojoa leads Mexicali, three games to one.