Pirates sink Twins in championship
Six days after advancing to the Little League finals, the Pacifia Pirates downed the Joeten Ace Hardware Twins, 13-10, in six hard-fought innings at the Oleai Sports Complex.
After trailing 2-0 after the top of the first inning, the black and gold rallied for six runs. The Twins had a rally of their own to tie it up at six in their next at bats, but the Pirates answered with back-to-back-to-back homeruns to take the lead for good.
The twins fought back, scoring three runs in the sixth and final inning, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop the Pirates. The Twins took second place in the final tournament of the season, while the UMDA Hustlers took third after they eked out an 8-7 victory over the fourth place AA Enterprises Tanapag Braves.
The action began when Dave Camacho crossed home plate courtesy of an Eric Tenorio double in the first. Tenorio would score when the next batter, Greg Camacho, doubled him home.
The Twins offense made a statement early, and the Pirates were quick to issue a response. Twins pitcher Dave Camacho walked lead off hitter A.J. Taitano to get the Pirates their first base runner. Eli Augenbaugh singled, and Ofero Taitano walked to load the bases before slugger Cameron Nicolas tripled the trio home. Alex Benevente tripled Nicolas home and was himself tripled in by Wally Emu Jr. Emu would make it home via catching error to give the Pirates the 6-2 lead after one.
The Pirates were all fired up going into the second, but that changed when Nathan Castro came up to the plate and doubled to lead off the inning for the Twins. Tony Castro was walked before Jared Camacho reached base. Josh Jones picked up a couple of RBI’s when he singled, and Tenorio tied it up for the Twins when he doubled another couple of runners home.
The Twins pitcher Dave Camacho made the Pirates first two hitters ground out in the second, only to be on the receiving end of a long distance hit fest. Augenbaugh singled to get the offense started in what was an almost unthinkable display of power in the finals. Ofero, Nicolas and Benevente exploded in the second as they unleashed three consecutive homeruns to retake the lead 10-6.
The Twins were only able to answer back with one run in the third, to which the Pirates replied with their own tally. In the fourth, the ‘Rates added two more when Benevente and Rocco Reyes made it home to give them the 13-7 advantage.
The Twins were unable to produce any runs in the fourth, and fell victim to the relief pitching of Ofero Taitano in the fifth, going down 1-2-3 on consecutive strikeouts. They had one last chance in the sixth, and after their comeback victory over the Braves last week, both teams knew that the game’s final three outs would be the most difficult.
With two outs, Dave Camacho, Eric Tenorio and Greg Camacho touched home to cut the lead to 13-10, but it was not to be for the Twins.
