Ol’ Aces dominant in championship

The Ol’ Aces only needed five innings from pitcher Tony Palacios and a 10-run mercy rule to win the Senior Little League championship on Saturday, downing the Pirates 13-2 in action at the Francisco M. Palacios baseball field.

They say good pitching beats good hitting, and Palacios certainly helped to bolster the theory. In five solid innings of work, he struck out five batters, allowed three hits, walked three, and threw only 54 pitches—29 for strikes. His fielders did a great job as well, committing just one error in the contest.

The offense of the champions did their part to support their ace by scoring in every inning, totaling in all 13 runs. Palacios helped out his own cause by going 2-for-4 at the plate, scoring twice, stealing a base, and three runs batted in.

Franco Flores showed Palacios some love, hitting 3-for-4, scoring three times with a double and an RBI. Speedster Tyrone Omar scored twice, stole home, and cranked out a pair of doubles to get his team fired up.

It was definitely a team effort by the Ol’ Aces, and anyone in attendance Saturday afternoon could tell that they were really enjoying the game. When the opposing hitters would step into the batter’s box to get a piece of a Palacios pitch, fielders started hootin’ and a hollerin’ to distract them. Members of the fourth place Verizon team that stuck around to see the final agreed that all of the noise makes a difference to the hitters focus.

The game got underway after the introductions were made and the national anthems were played, just after 12pm. Flores got the game’s first hit as he slugged his way to second base. Ben Tasikan followed up with a base hit that singled Flores home, giving the Aces the 1-2 lead. If Tasikan didn’t trip while rounding first base, he would have certainly got a double out of it.

Pirates’ pitcher Manny Ada got two of his five strikeouts in the first, and they game looked like a possible defensive showdown was in the midst. After a getting to first and stealing second, Pat Alepuyo evened the game at 1-all when Jesse Garcia hit him home with a double. Ada popped up to first to end the inning, and going into the second it was anyone’s game.

Ada started the second by retiring the first two batters, but gave up a single, a walk, a double and a triple in succession to go down 4-1. A wild pitch gave the Aces their fourth run of the inning when Palacios came home.

The Pirates answered with one run in the second when Tim Deleon Guerrero crossed the plate courtesy of a Jack Castro single. That was all of the offense that the Pirates would muster, as a combination of good pitching and good hitting by the Ol’Aces did them in.