Braves, Toros to face off in U12 baseball finals

The final stage is set for the Saipan Baseball League U12 Baseball Tournament, as the No. 1 seed Braves and Toros won their semifinals games last Saturday at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Pangelinan softball field in Susupe.

Braves’ pitching staff pitched a four-inning shutout game for an 11-0 win over the Blue Jays to take the first finals spot in the tourney.

Aiken Norita of the Braves pitched an incredible game as he registered 12 strikeouts—with the Blue Jays’ missing each swing of his well-placed throws.

Norita’s offense backed him up, as well as five runs in the first inning from the top of the line up to the middle of the order for an early 5-0 lead. Dayton and Damian Marchadesch again scored a run each in the second, and Kayden Lizama added another run of his own for an 8-0 game.

At this point, the Blue Jays had just put one batter on base from a walk to Napu Reyes, but the Blue Jays’ bats were just not making contact throughout the game.

The Braves’ Lizama then scored his third run of the game in the third inning, followed by another run by Dylan Barcinas for a wider 10-0 lead. One more run came in the last inning for the Braves and it was more than enough for the win, as the Blue Jays ended the game scoreless.

In the second game, the Toros defeated the Comets in a close 10-9 final.

The Comets came up short in their last at-bat at the bottom of the last inning as they only brought in one run.

It was back-and-forth throughout the game as four runs were made by the Toros, and three runs came in for the Comets. The Comets then took a one-run lead in the second after they scored two runs via Travon Manglona and Reddick Guerrero, but the Toros were on their heels as Leighton Tenorio and Caleb Cabrera scored two runs as well to take back the lead, 6-5.

The Comets scored one run in the third, followed by two runs in the fifth to tie the game up, 8-8. However, the Toros’ Cabrera and Ben Lizama scored two crucial runs in their last at-bat, which was enough to secure the last finals spot, as the Toros came up short by just one run.

If the weather permits, the Braves and Toros are set to compete in the final round of the tourney at 9:30am.