MAZATLAN 7, HERMOSILLO 6 IN MAZATLAN
Batting stars: Isaac Paredes was 3-for-4 with a double and three runs. Anthony Giansanti was 2-for-4 with a double. Hector Mora was 2-for-4. Ricardo Valenzuela was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.
Pitching stars: Marco Antonio Rivas pitched a perfect inning and struck out one. Jesus Pirela pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Norberto Obeso was 3-for-5. Yadiel Hernandez was 3-for-5. Jasson Atondo was 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs. Julian Leon was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer and a walk.
The game: Mazatlan scored in the first when Paredes singled, Oscar Munoz walked, and Giansanti delivered an RBI double. Hermosillo came back to take the lead in the second. Singles by Fernando Perez and Luis Alfonso Cruz were followed by a fielder's choice, loading the bases with two out. Atondo then hit a two-run single and Obeso had an RBI single, putting Hermosillo ahead 3-1.
Mazatlan had a three-run inning of their own in the third to get the lead back. Jose Augusto Figueroa singled, Maxwell Leon was hit by a pitch, and Paredes doubled home the first run. A sacrifice fly tied the score, a hit batsman put men on first and third, and an error brought home the go-ahead run.
In the fifth Paredes singled and scored on a Munoz double. A single and a ground out brought Munoz home to make it 6-3. Valenzuelan homered leading off the sixth and Mazatlan appeared to have a comfortable 7-3 advantage.
However, things are sometimes not as they appear to be. Atondo walked leading off the seventh, went to second on a ground out, and scored on Hernandez' single to make it 7-4. In the eighth, and error and Leon's two-run homer cut the lead to a single run at 7-6. Hermosillo went on to get a pair of two-out singles, but a popup ended the inning. They also got a leadoff single in the ninth but could not advance the runner past first base.
WP: Francisco Rios (3-1). LP: Luis Mendoza (0-2). S: Pirela (4).
Notes: Paredes is batting .424. Figueroa was 1-for-5 and is batting .388. Munoz was 1-for-1 and is batting .340. Giansanti is batting .314.
Rivas' ERA is 2.77. Roberto Espinosa gave up an earned run in two-thirds of an inning and has an ERA of 2.40. Juan Ramon Noriega retired the only batter he faced and has an ERA of zero.
Rios started and pitched five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk and striking out four.
Record: Mazatlan is 12-14, in seventh place, eight games behind Obregon. They are a half-game behind sixth place Jalisco.
Next game: Mazatlan again hosts Hermosillo tonight.