Baseball: Leones welcome back fans with an 8-4 victory over Tabasco

A night that started with a fireworks display that welcomed fans to the home-series opener ended in fireworks on the field as Alex Liddi and Sebastian Valle came in big and defeated the Olmecas.

The runs started in the bottom of the second after Walter Ibarra drove in Yadir Drake advancing Valle to second — for a 1-0 Leones lead as Jorge Flores hits a pop up to left field, allowing Valle to cross home plate and the Leones up 2-0 to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, Valle hit a bases-empty home run of his own, picking up his second run of the game, over the left-field wall to increase the Leones’ lead 3-0 through four innings.

Tabasco answered with their only scoring of the night in the top half of the 5th, manufacturing three runs of their own with timely hitting to tie the game. The Olmecas started the inning off with a short liner up the middle to squeeze a two base hit, followed by a long liner up the right field line for a single and a long liner double up the middle just beyond the center fielder. The very next batter sacrifice bunted the runner to third. With the score now 3-2, the next batter caught the Leones by surprise when he dragged a bunt base hit towards first sending the base runner on third across the plate to tie the game. The next batter reached first after being hit by a pitch and the Leones were finally able to get out of the inning with a well executed double play.

Liddi smashed another ball out of the park driving in two runs making the score 5-3 when Drake took the plate advancing to second on a pop fly driving in Art Charles from second. The inning ended with Valle driving in a scoring run by Drake, for a 7-3 Leones lead.

In the sixth, Jose Aguilar scored on a line drive to right by Jonny Jones, to reach the Leones’ 8-4 victory.

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