Cienega alum Isabel Mendoza‘s walk-off single to left field with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning gave No. 1 Pima a 5-4 win over No. 2 South Mountain in an NJCAA Region I, Division II semifinal game on Friday at West Cam(pus Aztec Field.
Pima (46-7) will have a rematch with South Mountain (46-12) in the championship round that starts Saturday at noon at West Campus Aztec Field. South Mountain defeated Phoenix 6-2 in an elimination game after its loss to Pima.
The Aztecs will secure the championship with one win, while South Mountain must beat Pima twice.
The closely-matched rivals have played seven times this season and Pima now holds a slim 4-3 edge.
Friday’s game went an extra inning and a half before Pima rallied for the win.
Clarissa Figueroa (Mountain View) led off the ninth striking out but reached first on the dropped third strike.
Jiselle Nunez (Tucson) followed with a single that advanced Figueroa to third base.
After a pitching change for South Mountain, Julissa Lopez (Tucson) grounded out to first. Figueroa remained at third and Nunez advanced to second base.
Following a fly out for the second out, Soleil Ponce (Sunnyside) was hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases.
Mendoza connected on a 1-1 pitch and the hit landed in shallow left field, scoring Figueroa with the winning run.
Mendoza, a freshman, finished 3 for 5 with two RBIs.
Pima finished with 14 hits, 12 after the teams were scoreless through the first three innings.
The Aztecs answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth after South Mountain’s GG Moreno belted a two-run home run in the top half of the inning.
Nunez hit her 13th home run of the season, 35th of her career with the Aztecs, to start the fourth-inning rally.
Lopez walked and scored on a double by Angelina Dehler (Empire). After the first out of the inning, Mendoza hit a single that scored Dehler and gave Pima a 3-2 lead.
Figueroa doubled to lead off the fifth inning and later scored on Dehler’s two-out single.
Two runs by South Mountain in the top of the sixth tied the game at 4.
Both teams had their chances to take the lead before Pima and Mendoza rallied for the win in the ninth.
Pima had the bases loaded in the sixth, and runners on first and second in the seventh, but could not cash in.
South Mountain stranded a runner at third base in the top of the eighth. The Aztecs suffered three outs on three pitches in the bottom of the eighth.
Belen Camacho (Pueblo), the ACCAC Division II Pitcher of the Year, remained strong in the top of the ninth with her defense backing her up. Dehler, the second baseman, and Ponce, the first baseman, turned a double play to end the inning.
Camacho (15-2) got the win in relief of starter Adrianna Machado (Canyon del Oro). Camacho allowed five hits and two runs in her six innings of work. She struck out five and walked three.
Dehler was 3 for 4 with a run, double and RBI. Nunez finished 2 for 5 with a run, home run and RBI. Figueroa went 1 for 5 with a double and two runs. Amerika-Lopez Bedoy (Sunnyside) was 2 for 4 with a double.
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