Alejandro Soto and three other pitchers combined to throw the first no-hitter in the history of El Aguila de Veracruz. (Screenshot from Twitter Video)
By Julian Guilarte
World Baseball Network
Four pitchers for El Aguila de Veracruz combined to throw the first combined no-hitter in franchise history against Braves de Leon on July 28 in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol at Estadio Universitario Beto Avila in Veracruz, Mexico.
El Aguila de Veracruz won the game 1-0 on a walk-off home run by right fielder Jose Luna in the bottom of the ninth against Bravos de Leon relief pitcher Fernando Olguin.
This was the first no-hitter in the history of El Aguila de Veracruz and in the eighth in the history of the Mexican League.
Lazaro Blanco started for Bravos de Leon and pitched five scoreless innings with two strikeouts.
El Aguila de Veracruz started the game with Alejandro Soto on the mound. Soto pitched six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and left the game in a 0-0 tie with no hits allowed. He was pulled after 88 pitches and talked about his outing post-game with the media.
“I was tired after throwing six innings, but I said to the coach that I would be willing to pitch in the seventh if needed. The coach said we need to bring someone in that’s fresh and ready because we need to win the game. That was the discussion,” Soto said.
Yapson Gomez came in relief after Soto and pitched a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts. In the eighth, El Aguila de Veracruz brought in reliever Gerardo Gutierrez. Gutierrez walked two batters but was still able to keep the no-hitter going.
Samuel Zazueta pitched the ninth and walked a batter, got a strikeout, and didn’t allow any hits. Zazueta got the final out in the ninth when Bravos de Leon left fielder Justin Byrd grounded out to second baseman Hector Mora.
Zazueta ended up picking up the win after the walk-off home run from Luna. The home run was the third of the year for Luna and it sealed the no-hitter for El Aguila de Veracruz. Four pitchers combined to get the job done for El Aguila de Veracruz.
El Aguila de Veracruz is 43-39 entering Sunday’s game, while the Bravos de Leon are 31-52. They’ll play the final game of their series on July 30 at 8 p.m. ET.
All Liga Mexicana de Beisbol games are streamed on Jonron.Tv.
Correction: A previous version of this story indicated that this was the first no-hitter in El Aguila de Veracruz history. It was the first combined no-hitter in El Aguila’s history, and the story has been changed to reflect that.