CULIACAN 6, MAZATLAN 5 IN CULIACAN (12 INNINGS)

Batting stars:  Edson Garcia was 3-for-5 with a walk.  Anthony Giansanti was 3-for-6.  Ricardo Valenzuela was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and three RBIs.  Ramon Rios was 2-for-6.

Pitching stars:  Irwin Delgado pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walk and striking out one.  Ivan Zavala pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Alejandro Soto struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.  Ryan Newell pitched a 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Joey Meneses was 3-for-5 with two RBis.  Jose Guadalupe Chavez was 2-for-4.  Efren Navarro was 2-for-6 with a two-run homer (his second) and a double.  Jesus Adrian Castillo struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Gonzalo Sanudo pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out one.  Gerardo Sanchez pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out one.  Evan Miller pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one.  Alberto Baldonado pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

The game:  Culiacan started the scoring in the first inning.  Johnny Davis singled, Ramiro Pena walked, and they pulled off a double steal to put men on second and third.  A pair of sacrifice flies made it 2-0.  In the second Chavez singled, an error put men on first and third, and another sacrifice fly made it 3-0 Culiacan.

Mazatlan came back in the third.  Diego Madera led off with a single and Garcia hit a one-out single.  Ramon Rios followed with another single to drive in a run and Carlos Munoz walked, loading the bases.  Ricky Alvarez was hit by a pitch to force home a run and Valenzuela walked to bring home another, tying the score 3-3.

It stayed 3-3 until the twelfth inning.  Apparently, in the Mexican League, the twelfth is when the "start with a man at second base" rule kicks in.  For Mazatlan, there was still a man on second with two out, but Randy Romero singled and Valenzuela hit a two-run double, putting Mazatlan up 5-3.  In the bottom of the twelfth, however, Meneses singled home a run and Navarro followed with a walkoff two-run homer, winning the game for Culiacan 6-5.

WP:  David Gutierrez (1-0).  LP:  Marco Antonio Rivas (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Valenzuela is batting .348.  Italo Mota is batting .333.  Carlos Munoz was 0-for-3 is batting .300.

Delgado has an ERA of 3.00.  Roberto Espinoza pitched two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run and also has an ERA of 3.00.  Newell has an ERA of 0.00.

Andres Ivan Meza started for Culiacan.  He pitched 2.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks and striking out one.

Culiacan had three sacrifice flies.  They were 1-for-12 with men in scoring position and stranded 11.  Mazatlan was 3-for-11 with men in scoring position and stranded 12.

The game took five hours and four minutes to play.

Record:  Mazatlan is 4-5, in sixth place, four games behind Obregon.

Next game:  Mazatlan is again at Culiacan tonight.