Saipan Jr. All-Stars sweep first two games

The Saipan Junior All-Stars have the momentum going against their counterparts from Tinian after outscoring them, 36-7, in a sweep of the first two games of the Junior League District Tournament yesterday at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

Both games were ended by the 10-run mercy rule.

Peter Tenorio and Ricardo Dela Cruz were overpowering from the mound, pitching four shutout innings in the Saipan Junior All-Stars’ 17-1 route of the Tinian Junior All-Stars in the first game.

Tenorio, who led the 2008 Saipan Junior League with 26 strikeouts for the runner-up Jets, had the Tinian batters completely puzzled en route to registering six strikeouts in three innings.

Dela Cruz, who struck fear in the hearts of opposing pitchers while playing for champion Lion Heart last season, was equally effective from the No. 1 position.

Tinian only managed to get on base against Dela Cruz when former tennis prodigy Benjie Decena doubled off him in the fourth.

In the fifth, the tournament’s lone female player Jamie Omengkar also took first base when Dela Cruz accidentally hit her before Darius Pettis gave the neighboring island their first run of the game on a Decena single.

But that one run was not enough to stave off the 10-run mercy rule, as Saipan had already accumulated 17 runs in the first five innings and they took Game 1 with a lot to spare.

For the record, the Saipan Junior All-Stars piled on five runs in the very first inning, added another three in the second, five more in the third, before scoring three more runs apiece in the fourth and fifth innings.

Tinian appeared to be rejuvenated after the lunch break as they surprised Saipan pitcher Joseph Palacios with three hits that scored three runs in the first inning to lead 3-0.

Saipan answered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first. Palacios then was lifted in favor of Leroy Regis in the second after the Jets pitcher allowed Vicente Cruz a single that scored Moses Untalan, giving Tinian a shocking 4-3 lead.

Regis shut down Tinian shortly after taking the mound as he only yielded two more runs the rest of the way. Saipan batters, meanwhile, found their rhythm following up a two-run second inning with a 13-run explosion in the third, which for all intents and purposes, ended the game in Saipan’s favor.

The more than one-hour third inning for Saipan saw all nine players round the bases with Anthony Salas, Dela Cruz, Regis, Justin Kintol, and Tenorio even touching home plate twice.

Saipan tucked in one more run in the bottom of the fourth when Lamarc Iguel scored on an error by Tinian catcher Joel Santos to make it 19-6.

Tinian, which needed to score four runs in the fifth to avert another mercy run-shortened game, went down 1-2-3 when Decena failed to beat the relay to first, Regis struck out Santos, and Christian Barcinas was forced out at first.

Saipan manager Vinnie Sablan was happy with the back-to-back wins and said it was great preparation for the all-important championship at 9am today.

“It’s good and I’m proud of the boys. Everything is going as planned. Like I said we just wanted to win all the games that we have. Hopefully, we can duplicate the feat today and score a lot of runs tomorrow.

“The good thing that we have is that we’re entering tomorrow’s game with our two top pitchers—Lamarc Iguel and Harry Nakamura. That will be an advantage for us since Team Tinian has yet to see our best on the mound,” he said.

Asked if he was worried when Tinian managed to cross home plate thrice in the first inning and took a 4-3 lead in the second, Sablan said it served as a wake-up call for his boys that anything can happen in baseball.

“They [Tinian] earned it and they got their hits. We just fell off a little bit in the first inning,” said Sablan.

Tinian manager Fred Omengkar, for his part, said his team will be up against long odds today when they face a Saipan team teeming with talent.

“We saved two our pitchers for tomorrow’s game. But these guys are pretty solid. We’ll just do what we can but they’re a very strong team. The only way we can have a chance is for our pitchers to perform well tomorrow,” he said.

The two starting pitchers Omengkar was referring to are brothers Malcolm and Daville Maui.