Saipan Tribune

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

4 teams knotted up as U18 baseball kicks off

All four competing teams in the U18 youth baseball tourney under the Tan Holdings' 40th Anniversary Sports Festival have so far split their games and hold similar 1-1 win-loss records following last weekend's matches at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield.

The tournament uses a double-round robin format with a page system playoff scheduled for this weekend, weather permitting.

Fiesta Resort 10, D&Q 0

Last Saturday, Fiesta Resort & Spa roared out of the gate with a one-hit, 10-0 shutout victory over D&Q Distributors.

Fiesta Resort & Spa pitchers Mike Muna and Jake Santos teamed up and served D&Q a sour one-hit no-no in the event opener that inspired a lopsided victory for the group.

D&Q starter Carl Camacho made it through the first inning unscathed, but Fiesta worked around a couple runs in the second frame off an error and a fielder's choice that scored A.J. Lizama and T.J. Sablan.

D&Q then ended up opting for three pitching changes in the third inning that resulted in a 5-0 lead for Fiesta after its trio gave up six walks.

Fiesta designated hitter Jake Flores then made it a 7-0 count in the fourth inning with a two-RBI base smash that scored Poland Masaharu and Lizama.

Fiesta's Frankie Camacho kept it rolling with an RBI sing;e that scored Kenji Yamagata in the fifth and Flores signed off the match with a booming two-RBI double that brought home Jun Rabauliman and Lizama.

Flores batted 2-for-3 with four RBIs, a run, and a base on balls. Lizama swung 2-for-3 with four runs, two stolen bases, and a base on ball.

Fiesta pitcher Muna dealt three scoreless and hitless 1-2-3 innings that set the tone and struck out three.

Winning pitcher Santos finished off the last four frames and kept the shutout intact. He struck out three, plunked one, and walked another.

POI 3, Kanoa Resort 2

In Saturday's second game, POI Aviation nipped Kanoa Resort by a run.

POI scored two quick runs right out of the gate with some aggressive base running, while Kanoa Resort's starting pitcher Brett Halstead struggled to find the strike zone.

He plunked leadoff man Lancaster Secharmidal and the speedster made him pay for it in the end.

Sechermidal stole second base right away and wound up at third after a passed ball before scoring off an error.

Khobby Kaipat then reached on a dropped ball at first base, stole second, and scored with the help of a passed ball and a wild pitch.

As for POI, starting pitcher Peter Lieto was lights out and struck out the side in both the first and third innings for an ever efficient eight strikeouts in just nine batters faced.

He handed the ball to Jonathan Camacho to start the fourth inning and Kanoa Resort managed to tie the match back at 2-all thanks to an RBI single by Leroy Regis and a sacrifice fly by from Ricardo Dela Cruz.

Kanoa Resort's Regis took over for Halstead after the shaky start in the first inning and he left the door open for his team to spark another rally that never came.

Dela Cruz took over for Regis in the fifth inning before Jose Lizama came in to try and close the match in the top portion of the last inning.

Lizama found himself in quite a pickle with two inherited base runners, and although he needed just one out to get off the field, it came after POI's Lieto scurried home from third to give his team the lead.

In the end, POI's Kanoa Wanket was called to the hump to close the last three outs and he succeeded with little trouble.

D&Q 2, POI 1

The game between D&Q and POI all went down in the fifth inning as POI's Peter Lieto lifted a sacrifice fly that scored Khobby Kaipat but D&Q responded right away with two runs in the bottom portion.

Jeremy Lizama made it on and around off errors, while Ton Guerrero hustled into scoring position, thanks to a costly error at short, and was escorted home via a base rip by Jhace Palacios.

D&Q's Carl Camacho then was tapped to close the last two innings and he did a good job keeping the rival squad at bay for the save.

Hits were hard to come by in what turned out to be a nice pitching display by both teams. D&Q out-hit POI, 4-2, in the game and committed only two errors, which perhaps made the difference in the outcome.

Kanoa Resort 7, Fiesta Resort 6

Kanoa Resort recovered after its narrow loss to POI on Saturday by outlasting Fiesta Sunday morning

Both teams hit the board for a run in the opening frame and it remained a stalemate through the middle innings until Fiesta Resort assumed a 3-1 lead in the fifth off back-to-back errors in the infield sandwiched between a couple of clutch hits.

Jun Rabauliman drove in leadoff man Frankie Camacho and Mike Muna sprinted home off a wild pitch.

Fiesta then added three more runs in the top of the sixth inning thanks to some sketchy pitching and the win looked like it was in the bag, but Kanoa Resort was not ready to call it a day just yet and instead surmounted the five-run deficit with four hits.

Davie Matagolai ignited the rally with a leadoff double and scored off an error.

Leroy Regis then singled home Justin Santos and Cedric Ada brought him to the plate shortly after.

Ricardo Dela Cruz singled on and scored off an error as Fiesta began to unravel and Jose Lizama grounded in Ada to knot the match at 6-apiece.

They tapped Brett Halstead to the mound to close the game and he managed to keep a lid on them.

Fiesta Resort's Jake Santos was chosen to contain Kanoa Resort at the start of seventh and he held them off for two and a third innings until Kanoa Resort's Matagolai bashed the game-winning single that scored second batter Perry Celis who reached just prior off a fielder's choice.

Details of Sunday's other two games will be released later this week.