No Zone chips away at DCCA
Team No Zone took down DCCA in continuation of the Saipan Softball Association’s Inter-Government League Tuesday night, to advance to a showdown with the CPA team for the regular season pennant championship at the Oleai Sports Complex.
It was the same outcome for the two free-swinging powerhouses, but this time the score of 26-21 was much closer than the 30-20 shellacking when the DCCA got caught in the No Zone.
DCCA was first to wield the big sticks, as they leaped out to a seven-zip lead in the top of the first. The Zoners came right back, scoring five runs off of five hits in the bottom half of the inning.
DCCA added three more runs to the lead when John Reyes, Joey Dela Cruz and Frances George crossed the plate to make the score 10-5.
Team No Zone decided that they had enough, beginning a 21-run scoring frenzy over the next three innings. The Zoners scored eight runs in the third inning off of nine hits. It was consistent hitting that powered the TNZ, as they only hit one homer in the inning.
With the score 13-10 after three, DCCA retook the lead, belting out 11 runs off of 10 hits and four dingers, including a Dela Cruz gran dela slam.
Their team trailing by eight runs, No Zone kept chugging along, rolling out six runs in the fifth, including back-to-back-to-back homers by Lo Lang Fang, Ned Norita and Fonze Tanope to cut their deficit to just two runs.
Only an error by the second baseman prevented DCCA from going down 1-2-3 in the fifth, and when Team No Zone got their at bats they took full advantage, and the lead. Down 21-19, the Zone rallied for seven runs off of eight hits in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead for good.
DCCA would not score another run in the contest, but batting machine Joey Dela Cruz scored himself the batting title, going 2-for-3 with two homeruns and five RBI’s.
Team No Zone got solid hitting from their entire team, but standout slugger Manny Sablan went 4-for-4, with a pair of doubles and singles to the tune of four RBI’s.
