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01/20/2006 Archived Entry: "Mex Pac League News : Guasave made it to Title Series"
By Carlos Fragoso
GUASAVE 4 HERMOSILLO 1 EDGAR LEYVA 3 - 1 KEN RAY 1 – 2
Guasave Cottoneers against all odds and comeing from venid in series beat Narnjeros 4-1 to become the other finalist to play Mazatlán Venados for the MexPac title, with a superb pitching performance again by Edgar Leyva who worked trhough 5 innings allowin just 2 hits, a homer by Luis Alfonso Garcia and 4 more relievers helped him to complete the work for Guasave, that including their closer Dale Thayer.
One has to realize that , how far the Cottoneers would go, without Spike Lundberg, whose value to the team in unmeasureable, maybe falling against Hermosillo in 6 games, but now they confirmed to be one of the hottest playing teams lately, in a attempt to end up with thei 34 years championship droughtness
Leyva got all the support form Noe Muñoz RBI single in the bottom of the first inning, then followed by the blasting hitting of Guasave`s “ V Killers “, Mario Valenzuela and Mario Valdez, who homered to seal up this victory, the Super Mario`s show was on
For Hermosillo losing pitcher was Ken Ray, appointed by manager Lorenzo Bundy over Sergio Mitre`s turn, also performed well , however the mommnetumm was on the Cottoneers side, and his team was outhit in only 3 by Guasave pitching staff
So now, final series will begin, tomorrow in Guasave playing 2 games, Saturday and Sunday, Monday will be traveling day, to continue in Mazatlan on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
Both teams will face each other in final series for the 1 st time in Mex Pac history , being Cottoneers only second time they play final series since 1971 – 72 season
Guasave last win their only title back in 1971 beating Culiacan in that series under Vinicio “ Chico “ Garcia, having players of the tale of Miguel Suarez, Ramon Montoya, Lupe Chavez , Mike Baldwin , Mike Floyd, Alan Hrabosky yes “ the mad hungarian “, Paul Dade and more
Mazatlan has a total of 9 final series , winning 6 of those, last time accomplished was 2004- 2005 season , also winning the Caribbean Series held in their home, so the experience and momentum are in the Mazatlan side, but Cottoneers are hot these days and will start playing at home
Both teams performed pretty much similar during the regular season in batting and pitching, however in play off series, Mazatlan dominated Guasave in batting by far and about the same in pitching , 2.73 vs 2.51 ERA leading Guasave
So the coin is flipping in the Guasave`s air , let`s see on saturday how is turn it on
