Little Legals, Comets stay perfect

A Little Legals runner stays on top of the second base during their Majors division game against the Pirates in the SLLB last Saturday at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Basa Pangelinan Ballfield. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Kagman Little Legals and Comets kept their clean slates in the Majors division of the 2016 Saipan Little League Baseball after topping their respective foes over the weekend at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Pangelinan Ballfield.

The Little Legals, which won their debut against the Falcons last March 5, 5-4, gained two more victories last weekend, crushing the Pirates first, 27-0, before dominating the Ol’Aces, 14-5.

The Little Legals dueled the Pirates last Saturday and needed only three innings to cruise to victory. The winning squad played a solid offense in the first two innings and capitalized on the Pirates’ defensive lapses to set up the rout.

At the top of the first, the Little Legals got nine of their 13 runs off the Pirates’ miscues. In the second, the Little Legals added 11 more runs with nine of them were earned ones. In both innings, all Little Legals players on the batting order lineup went to bat and five of them batted twice in the first and six did the same in the second.

Gunner Sablan and Kaipo Dikito pitched for the Little Legals with the former staying on the mound for two innings and striking out five batters. Sablan allowed only three hits with no walks and his second and last strikeout at the bottom of the left Pirates runners stranded on second and third bases. Dikito closed out for the Little Legals and gave up no hit with two walks. He had two strikeouts, with his last one, leaving Pirates runners stuck at first and third base and handing the Little Legals a clean 3-0 record.

The Comets duplicated the Little Legals’ perfect mark, as the former whipped McDonald’s last Saturday, 19-6, and had a similar easy win over the Twins, 18-4, last March 6.

The Comets needed only four innings to beat the Twins, which were held to one run in the first three innings. While the Twins struggled to score, the Comets were consistent on offense, making fur runs apiece in the first three innings.

A two-run homer from Vincent Nakamura in the third inning highlighted the Comets’ solid start and the team also collected five earned runs in that stretch. The Comets then finished off the Twins with a six-run top of the fourth, nullifying the three runs their foes gained at the bottom.

In other results in the Best Sunshine International-sponsored SLLB, the Twins bounced back from their Week 2 loss to the Comets with an 8-5 triumph over the Braves last Saturday. The Braves, on the other hand, came from a 12-1 victory against the IT&E Regulators last March 6.