CULIACAN WINS SECOND HALF TITLE, EARNS TOP PLAYOFF SEED

With an 8-1 win over Los Mochis Thursday night, the Culiacan Tomateros finished the second half of the Mexican Pacific League schedule with a 20-13 record to tie with Mochis and Hermosillo for first place in the standings. That brought the calculators out for the “runs average” tiebreaker, basede on a team’s scoring differential in games they’ve played to determine their standings placement. Culiacan had a 141.79 RA to take first place and 8 points, Hermosillo was awarded second place and 7 points with a 112.43 RA and Mochis earned third place and 6 points by finishing with a 107.78.

In the overall two-half scoring race, Culiacan picked up 14 points with an LMP-best 39-29 record to gain top seed for the playoffs and will play Mazatlan (8.5 points) in the first round. Guasave (12.5) and Mochis (9.5) will square off in an opening set while Hermosillo (12.0) and Obregon (12.0) play in the other best-of-7 series. The Naranjeros will have home field advantage in that one after beating the Yaquis 7 of 12 games between the two teams during the regular season.

Individually, the Mex Pac office awarded Guasave's Eduardo Arredondo the batting title with a .406 average despite his being ten plate appearances shy of the 211 needed to qualify, while Hermosillo’s Luis Alfonso Garcia led with 21 homers and 60 RBIs. Mochis’ Alberto Castillo’s 9 wins led pitchers, Obregon’s Luis Mendoza had an LMP-best 2.11 ERA and Mexicali’s Andy Sisco had 85 strikeouts.