Falcons’ Kapileo lords it over in Majors division

Two Falcons players get ready to catch a fly ball during their game in the Majors division of the SLLB at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Basa Pangelinan Ballfield. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Falcons’ Kyle Kapileo is dominating the Majors division of the 2016 Saipan Little League Baseball as he leads four categories heading into the closing stage of the regular season.

Kapileo is ahead in the batting and pitching races (as of April 24) and is also on top of the RBIs and home run contests.

The Falcons players went 22-for-34 at bat in their 11 games for a batting average of .647. Kapileo paces the Comets’ Vincent Nakamura, who earned a batting average of .625 after going 20-for-32 in his team’s string of 10 wins. IT&E’s Patrick Celis is the third batter to average at least .600 as his 14-for-23 performance gave him .608.

Joining Kapileo, Nakamura, and Celis in the Top 10 are the Comets’ Reid Teregeyo (.588), the Little Legals’ Justin Agulto (.578), the Braves’ Heath Camacho (.558), the Falcons’ Jonathan Renguul (.538), the Twins’ Eliray Castro (.518), the Braves’ Tristan Norita (.516), the Little Legals’ Delbert Sablan (.500), Braves’ A.J. Johnson (.500), and the Ol’Aces’ Nathan Aizon (.500). Eight other players made it to the batting leaderboard, which was based on 23 or more times at bat.

In the pitching race, Kapileo posted a 0.48 ERA as he allowed only two runs in 25 innings pitched. He is on top of Agulto (0.70), teammate Keoni Serrano (0.80). Delbert Sablan (1.26), and the Ol’Aces’ Ohane Borja (.150). The pitching leaders were based on 12 or more innings pitched.

Kapileo has a good chance of keeping his lead in both the batting and pitching races as the Majors division has one more playing weekend left (including last weekend’s matches) in its regular schedule, while another weekend is reserved for make-up matches. Kapileo’s Falcons were scheduled to close out their elimination round assignment last Saturday against the Pirates.

In other categories, Kapileo’s three homers tie Nakamura’s, while the former’s 24 RBIs are better than the 20 of the Comets’ slugger. In the runs race, Nakamura is ahead with his 23, while Kapileo and Teregeyo have 22 each.

In the triples department, Norita and Castro are even with three each, while Delbert Sablan has the lead in the most doubles with his eight. Heath Camacho and Castro have six and five, respectively. In strikeouts, Kaipat has 65 to lead Joven Reyes (57) and Kapileo (56).

In the team standings (excluding last weekend’s results), the Comets are still on top with their 10-0 mark, followed by the Little Legals (8-3), Falcons (8-3), Docomo Ol’Aces (6-4), NSA Braves (6-6), Twins (5-5), McDonald’s (3-7), IT&E (1-7), and Pirates (0-9). Only The Top 8 teams will advance to the playoffs.