- Both teams are undefeated going into the decisive match to be played this Sunday at Santa Barbara's Estadio 11 de Julio, starting at 10:30 a.m.
- The two Santa Barbara teams met in Semifinal 1, while Nacozari defeated Esqueda in Semifinal 2.
Nacozari and La Once de Santa Bárbara, the most dominant teams in the regular phase of the national phase of the Grupo México Mining League, will play this Sunday's final at Estadio 11 de Julio, in Santa Bárbara, starting at 10:30 am.
La Once de Santa Bárbara finished as undefeated leader of Group B, defeating Cananea, Esqueda and San Martín, scoring 30 runs for and 11 against in the first round. This position led them to face in the semifinal the Mineros de la Once team, also from Santa Barbara, whom they defeated by a score of 12-10.
A GREAT GAME AT THE 11 DE JULIO STADIUM
The Mineros took the lead in the first inning, with a run scored by Hugo Heredia and driven in by Adrián Bañuelos. Later, in the bottom of the second inning, La Once rallied to take a 4-1 lead with runs scored by Cesar Romero, Eduardo Garcia, Francisco Garcia and Jesus Chavez, the latter two driven in by a single by Fernando Vazquez.
The Santa Barbara Miners' response was not long in the top of the third inning. Yahel Gardea and Adrián Bañuelos opened the inning with hits and advanced to third and second on Héctor Náñez's ground ball to first. Antonio Ruiz drove in Gardea with a single and Pedro Sáenz sent Bañuelos home; while Ruiz later scored on a hit by Hugo Heredia to tie the score at four.
In the bottom of the third, with La Once on the offensive, César Romero received a base hit and immediately stole home, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Francisco García drove in the go-ahead run for La Once de Santa Bárbara.
The Mineros got back on the scoreboard in the fifth inning with a home run by Nabor López, which brought Pedro Sáenz and Irving Parga to the pentagon, for the first three of the episode. Later, Yahel Gardea doubled and came home on an extra-base hit by Adrián Bañuelos to put the game at 8-5 in favor of Los Mineros.
However, the joy did not last long because in the bottom of the fifth inning, La Once took advantage of the opponent's lack of control by starting the inning with a base on balls and a hit, in addition to allowing a single that turned into three runs, to tie the score at eight.
The sixth inning was decisive for La Once's victory with four more runs. Julian Villanueva opened with a base on balls and then scored on a ground out to Jesus Chavez. Eduardo García, Héctor Favela and Chávez also scored with a powerful triple by Auden González, who closed the game with 5 hits.
In the ninth inning, the Miners got closer 10-12 with a double by Hugo Heredia, who reached the plate with a similar hit by Nabor López, who was driven to the pentagon with a hit by Yahel Gardea, who then advanced to second after a base on balls to Adrián Bañuelos and only one out on the board. However, La Once's pitching came through and with a couple of groundballs to the box, they put the game to an end to advance to the final.
NACOZARI ACHIEVES THIRD KNOCKOUT IN FOUR GAMES AND REACHES THE FINAL
The Nacozari squad finished as the leader of Group A after defeating Charcas 22-0; Mineros de la Once 14-10; and San Luis Potosi 20-3, totaling 56 runs in the first phase, to be the team with the best offense of the tournament.
As group leaders, in the semifinal they faced Esqueda, who had defeated Cananea by a score of 12-8 in the decisive game for second place in Group B.
In the semifinal, Nacozari fell early to Esqueda with 5 runs and added a couple more in the bottom of the second to score the only run of the game. With nine runs in the fourth inning, Nacozari took a 16-1 lead into the top of the fifth and after a scoreless inning, they earned their third knock out of the tournament and a berth in the final to face La Once.
