No Zone rebounds to win championship

After dropping the first game of a best-of-three series with DCCA, Team No Zone came back to win the next two contests to capture the Inter-Government Softball Slow-pitch championship, Friday night, at the Oleai Sports Complex.

Rainy days have played havoc with the local field conditions, but the crew working at the DCCA did a wonderful job transforming the muddy mess into a picture-perfect softball diamond by game time.

With the series tied at a game apiece, Team No Zone blistered DCCA for 34 runs off of 35 hits, including a back-to-back-to-back home run-a-thon in the third inning by Manny Sablan, Ned Norita, and Loleny Fang. There were six homers hit by the Zoners in the third inning alone, and 13 for the game. TNZ accounted for all eight of their third-inning runs while having two outs. The final score was 34-20, but the game wasn’t even that close.

No Zone made it clear that the actual “No Zone” was the strike zone, because it seemed that almost all of the balls that were pitched there found their way over the fence. It even got better for them as the weather worsened.

They seemed to thrive as the rain began to fall, matching the natural drops with a deluge of their own, scoring eight in the first and the third. The team was definitely getting energized, piling on run after run. In the third inning, amidst the offensive onslaught, an enthusiastic shout from the dugout was heard, “This is us, this is No Zone!”

Sablan was in the zone, leading the way for the powerhouse by slugging four homers in the game, going 5-for-6 with 11 runs batted in.

“It’s great man, it’s really great. I wasn’t even paying attention to the stats. I was just trying to concentrate on the game. I was just concentrating on getting the win,” said Sablan.

Though it was his offense in Game 3 that fueled the fire for his team, it was a monster defensive play that helped his team get out of a bind in Game 2. With his team leading by four runs, Sablan was playing second base and watching as DCCA was building momentum and chipping away at the lead. There were no outs and the bases were loaded, setting the scene for one of the brightest displays of defense in the league all season, a triple play.

“I knew Benny would hit to the middle, so I played shallow and it worked. He hit it next to the bag, I got it and tagged Tony, stepped on the bag, and threw to first,” Sablan said.

The Zone was able to keep their composure after a disappointing Game 1, in which they lost to DCCA by a 30-27 score. They led off the game by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning, but that would be the only time that they would be ahead of the DCCA. In fact, DCCA pitcher Elias Rangamar was pumped by the Zone’s offensive performance in the first, running off of the field after the final out holding up three fingers and yelling “Only three.”

The equally powerful DCCA scored eight runs in the first off of eight hits; three of them for homers. You could see the excitement in the faces and mannerisms of the players on both teams in the first game.

While DCCA was playing extremely well, the Zoners were killing themselves with errors. The fans watched as player after player lost that glovin’ feelin’ for the Zone, allowing their opponents chances to add tallies to their total.

The fightin’ D’s piled on so much offense, and was so emotional in the first game, that it became more of a question of how long they could last at that level. After four innings, the score was 24-11, and it looked like there would not only be a Game 1 upset, but that the best-of-three would be over with a DCCA sweep.

The Zone fought back to cut the lead to one point with a nine-run explosion in the sixth inning, and it was no longer impossible for the Zone to comeback. The game’s scorekeeper, Ray Palacios was amazed at the rally, stating “Man, it would be a remarkable win if the No Zone could comeback to win it.”

Palacios took his predictions one step further, stating “If these guys (No Zone) blank them (DCCA) down here, they (DCCA) might lose.”

DCCA added a pair in the bottom to give a small cushion going into the seventh, and avoided the loss when they completely shutdown the Zone, allowing not a single run in the final inning to win the game 30-27. They earned a 1-0 series lead and thought they were all ready to go in Game 2.

DCCA player/coach Tony Rogolifoi was feeling confident as he outline what his team would have to do for a win in Game 2.

We’ll just have to play like we did in the first game. Discipline is the name of the game. I don’t see any reason to change our lineup—it’s perfect. I trust my boys. I have confidence.”

Game 2 was a little more normal by league standards, ending with a 15-11 score and only 10 homers between the competitors. The fact that No Zone won was also a little closer to the league norm as well.

After DCCA got a pair of runs to open the first inning, No Zone did “super typhoon” quality damage, crossing the plate nine times in the bottom half. They followed their strong offense with solid defense by holding the DCCA to zero runs in the second.

Momentum for the DCCA began to build as they scored three in the third and four in the fourth inning. In the fifth, it seemed that they were on track as they scored an early run in the inning. Then they loaded up the bases without an out and the game looked like it was finally within reach of the D’s. That’s when Sablan snatched that feeling away with his triple play.

There were a couple of runs traded back and fourth, but the main thing was that No Zone bounced back from a Game 1 loss to force a final Game 3. No Zone player/coach Jerry Ayuyu explained that he made no changes in his lineup going in to the second game and what he told his players after dropping the first game.

“I told them that we needed to cut down on our errors and that we needed to score more runs. That’s basically it—and to settle down. We beat them twice, we know we can win, but we’ve got to work on our bats because they have a lot of power hitters.”

In the first game of the night, the Governor’s office faced off against the Department of Agriculture in a battle for third place. Team Gov came out with four runs in the first en route to their 19-run performance. DOA played a solid game but was only able to produce eight runs for their effort.