The Guerreros de Oaxaca jumped out to an early 4-0 lead over the Diablos after 2 innings. Mexico roared back, scoring 5 runs in the 3rd inning, powered by a grand slam off of the bat of Juan Carlos Gamboa. 1 run in the 4th and 2 runs in the 5th resulted in Mexico overpowering Oaxaca to take game 1 of their Zona Sur Championship matchup. (Watch the grand slam here)
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| Juan Carlos Gamboa |
Julian Ornelas and Samar Leyva started the top of the 2nd for Oaxaca with singles. Both runners advanced on a fly ball out. Alejandro Gonzalez was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Ornelas and Leyva scored on a throwing error by the Diablo's first baseman, Guerreros 4, Diablos 0 after two innings.
The Diablos struck back hard in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Ricardo Valenzuela led off the inning being hit by a pitch. Jesus Fabela singled to left. Carlos Figueroa waited out a walk to load the bases. With one swing of the bat, Juan Carlos Gamboa cleared the bases on a deep home run to right. The grand slam tied the game for Mexico at 4 all. Two outs later, David Vidal singled and scored on a double to the left field corner by Michael Choice. The Diablos had their first lead of the game 5-4.
Ricardo Valenzuela tripled to lead off the bottom of the 4th foe Mexico and scored on a double by Jesus Fabela to give the Diablos a 6-4 lead.
Henry Urrutia homered to left to lead off the top of the 5th for Oaxaca. Dustin Geiger walked and following a line drive out to short, Samar Leyva was awarded first base when hit by a pitch. Both runnaers advanced on a bouncer back to the mound. A wild pitch allowed Geiger to score and the score was tied at 6.
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| Henry Urrutia |
Luis Jimenez doubled in the Diablo's half of the 5th and scored on a single by David Vidal. Vidal went to third on a single by Michael Choice and scored on a force play for the final 2 runs of the game and the 8-6 win for Mexico.
Neither starter was around for the finish although both were touched for the majority or the runs scored. Arturo Lopez (1-0) picked up the win in relief and Manny Acosta struck out the 3 batters he faced in the 9th inning to record the save. Axel Rios (0-1) gave up 3 runs on 5 hits in 1 1/3 innings of work in taking the loss.
These two teams meet for game 2 of the series on Saturday the 22nd of September with the Diablos up 1 game to none in the Zona Sur Championship.
