The Tomateros de Culiacán combined well this Friday an offensive of 10 hits to beat the Charros de Jalisco 5-3 and draw 3-3 in the final of the Pacific Baseball League, whose champion will be decided this Saturday.
The Tomateros, needing to win to stay alive, took the lead with a run in the first inning by combining a walk to Ramiro Peña, a single by Sebastián Elizalde and an RBI grounder by Joey Meneses, but the Charros turned the score around with two runs in the third act, chartered by hit by Japhet Amador.
The visiting team went ahead again with a couple of runs in the fifth inning, driven by the unstoppable Jesús Fabela and a double by Meneses. however, the home team made it 3-3 at the end of that inning on a sacrifice fly by Amador.
Culiacán took a one-run lead in the eighth. Efrén Navarro singled, advanced to second base on an error by Agustín Murillo, to third on a hit by Alexis Wilson and scored on a fly ball by Emmanuel Ávila.
In the ninth the Tomateros extended the score with a double by Fabela, a bunt by Peña and a hit by Meneses.
Panamanian Alberto Baldonado dominated the four batters he faced and earned a save in a duel won by Oliver Pérez, who worked clean in a third inning, and lost by Jared Wilson.
For the Tomateros, Fabela was the best hitter, going 3-5 with an RBI and for Charros, Japhet Amador went 1-3 with three RBIs.
This Saturday will be the seventh game of the final, whose winner will win the title and represent Mexico in the Caribbean Series, in the Dominican Republic from January 28 to February 3 next.
Ticket annotations
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 C H E
tomato trees 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 5 10 0
charros 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 2
Won: Oliver Perez (1-0)
Lost: Jared Wilson (0-1)
Except: Alberto Baldonado (2).
