CNMI falls to the Philippines, 10-3

KITAKYUSHU, Japan—The right arm of Filipino pitcher Mark Ong was too much for the CNMI hitters yesterday as the hurler allowed just four hits in a complete game at Matobaike Stadium that gave the Philippines its first win of the 2005 Asia-Pacific Tournament and dropped the CNMI to 0-2.

Ong was joined by Seva Martinez-Miranda as the only two returning players from last year’s RP team, and the duo combined to do the lion’s share of the damage.

When the players returned to the ball field for the second day, they were joined by the heat but were spared from the full fury of the rays in the Land of the Rising Sun as clouds shielded batters and fielders in the suburban facility.

Chris Meyers took the hill to start the game for the CNMI but was hit early and often as the Philippines jumped out to a 4-0 in the top of the first before Nokkie Lizama brought the dugout back to life when he hit a solo shot in the bottom of the inning that cleared the right field fence.

Lizama said that he was licking his chops when he saw Ong’s fastball steaming right down the middle of the plate, and that it felt good to hit a homerun in Japan.

Josh Jones came in to relieve Meyers in the top of the second, but the Philippines tallied another four runs to put the CNMI in a deeper hole.

Ong struck out all three batters from the Saipan squad in the bottom of the inning, but the CNMI picked up a little boost when they finally blanked the Philippines in the top of the third.

Esebei Arurang led off their at bat with a single from, but was thrown out at second when Josh Jones hit into a fielder’s choice, however; the CNMI cut the deficit to 8-3 a couple of hitters later when Nokkie Lizama doubled in Jones and Peter Tenorio.

That was as close as the CNMI would get, as Ong homered to lead off the fourth when he took Jones’ pitch over the right field fence to extend the lead to 9-3, and the Philippines added another before the inning was over.

By the time the dust settled, the CNMI managed only five hits in the contest from three batters (Maratita, Lizama, and Eric Tenorio).

Following the game manager Patrick Tenorio said that his team will have to take it to the next level in order to overcome their opening losses.

“We advised them before we left on the plane that this was going to be a higher caliber. Our kids really have to be ready to participate and if they aren’t, they’ll be left behind because the other teams are going to keep moving. With the tie system, they are going to score as much as they can. The more you score, the better you are in the standings, and that’ll come into play if there’s a three-way tie. Right now in the two games we’ve turned out only four runs, so it’s hard. Our boys are really sweating it out here, and back home we have the heat, but not like here. It’s no excuse for the way we’ve been playing out here. These boys are just throwing a little bit harder and our boys are falling behind on their swings. We worked on our short steps last night to try to catch up,” he said.

Guam caught the CNMI hitters by surprise in the first game by hurling the pitches as soon as they entered the batter’s box, and the Philippines outgunned the Saipan sluggers yesterday prompting Tenorio to make adjustments. One thing he noticed was that there isn’t a whole lot that the opponents are throwing other than the heat. “In this tournament it’s mostly just fastball. If you can throw harder than the next pitcher then you’re going to have the advantage. You don’t see a lot of curve balls. I think that [John] Maratita is the only one who’s throwing curveballs consistently,” said Tenorio.

Maratita said that he had a guiding voice from the dugout calling the pitches and that his curve ball was working well for him. Despite falling to the Philippines, the all-star said that the loss won’t get them down.

“I felt great, and was just listening to my manager. We were just trying to win this game but we couldn’t pull it of, but it’s alright,” he said.

After the game the team went back to the drawing board at Global Arena before facing Indonesia at Otani Stadium this afternoon where they’ll face more of the same challenges from their previous two games.

“Were going to go back and work on our swinging and pretty much we’ve been using up a lot of our pitchers already, and so the two pitchers that we had in the first game we might have to use them again tomorrow.

All of the other pitchers have thrown for four innings and will have to take the mandatory two days rest. Right now we’re just going to concentrate on the games and we’ll see what happens,” said Tenorio.

Before leaving the stadium, the manager made it clear that the players need to be better prepared for the weather by stressing that they eat and drink enough of the right things before the next game—which includes no more soft drinks and no more ice cream.

“The caliber of these guys that you are going to see are not the ones on Rota. These guys are your equals or even better, and right now you’re seeing it. I know it’s hot out there and that you’re sweating a lot—even them. Keep your heads up, we’ve still got two more games,” he said.

Chinese Taipei 15, Thailand 0

The Taiwanese terrors continued their assault on the scoreboard by tossing Thailand an opening loss to the tune of a 15-0 thumping at Otani Stadium on the tournament’s second day.

Chinese Taipei has amassed 35 runs through two games in the tournament while allowing just 4 and is scheduled to face Japan this afternoon while Thailand looks to even its record against Korea this morning.

Guam 7, Indonesia 1

The 2005 edition of the Guam Little League All-Stars didn’t suffer the same mistake that last year’s team did, as they routed Indonesia in front of an international crowd at Matobaike Stadium, 7-1.

With a 2-0 lead atop the Pacific division, the Guamanian delegation earned a rest day today, while Indonesia looks to regain some of its swagger against the CNMI this afternoon at Otani Stadium.

Japan 7, Hong Kong 2

The host country wasted no time getting on the board as their lead off batter took the first pitch from the Hong Kong pitcher over the left field fence to take an early 1-0 lead at Otani Stadium.

Hong Kong answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning to tie the game, but Japan scored three in the second and another trio of tallies in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead entering the final inning.

Hong Kong has the day off, but returns to vie for their first win against Thailand tomorrow morning at Otani Stadium.