Plot thickens in Slow Pitch

With just a couple of games remaining until the start of the Saipan Softball Association playoffs, a foursome of teams settled a handful of post-season seedings on Monday night, as the Eliminators walloped Natibu to finish in second place and Brotherhood exterminated X-Clusive for fourth.

Led by heavy hitter Elias “Jun” Saralu, the Eliminators jumped out to a 28-4 lead after four innings off of 29 hits and 10 homeruns. Saralu went a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, three homeruns and four runs batted in.

The Eliminators bats were ablaze, as four of their 10 players achieved perfection with the stick. Jerome Delos Santos went 3-for-3 with a walk and four scores, while brother Jonathan hit for the cycle with a single, a two-run double, a two-run triple, and an inside the park grand slam homerun to finish the night with eight runs batted in.

First baseman Joe Palacios also failed to miss an opportunity to pile on the offense, as he tallied three base knocks, a two-run homerun, and crossed the plate for four scores in four attempts.

After both teams finished the season with identical 11-2 records, the Eliminators moved into the second seed of the Island Wide Slow Pitch Softball League playoffs with the win, while Natibu slipped into third.

Before Monday night, only one of the post-season match ups had been locked down, as the first place Master Construction Flyers (12-1) will be facing the eighth seeded La Chai (6-7) in the first round. Now, the Brotherhood (9-4) will be challenging X-Clusive (9-4) in the playoffs, but it was the Brotherhood that landed the fourth seed, while X-Clusive took the fifth.

The teams with equal records played an even game for five innings until the Brotherhood erupted for 11 runs off of 10 hits between the sixth and seventh to put an end to the regular season with a 25-14 finish.

After closing the gap to 14-13 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the X-Clusive players watched the Brotherhood start the sixth inning with a triple off of the bat of centerfielder Oli Tkel, followed by a single from Leo Bobai, and a two-run homerun from Payton Sakuma. After the dinger, the Brotherhood got five consecutive hits from Gloyd Martin, Poland Masaharu, Vince Maremhan, Bernard Kileleman, and Ben Camacho to give them the 21-13 lead.

They put the icing on the cake in the top of the seventh when Masaharu cleared the bases with a grand slam—his second homerun of the night. Masaharu finished 3-for-5 with six runs batted in and three scores, while second baseman Sakuma went 3-for-4 with a pair of homers, a double, a walk, a sacrifice fly that scored Julian Camacho, four ribbies, and four plate crossings.

The scheduled third tiebreaker game between the Island Mix (8-5) and Bud Light Chura (8-5) was put on hold to honor player requests for postponement. The games will wait while thoughts and prayers go out to the Tenorio family.

For now, the Eliminators and Natibu will have to wait until next week to see who they will be facing in the playoffs, as the 3rd Annual Crime Stoppers Softball Tournament will avail of the Oleai facility throughout the weekend beginning tomorrow night.