Cardinals repeat as champions

While Major League Baseball’s postseason is just getting underway, the prolonged 2024 Tan Holdings-Saipan Baseball League season finally wrapped up with the Cardinals successfully defending their title on a manic Monday at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Baseball Field.

It was written in the cards as the now back-to-back champions Cardinals had a one-game advantage heading into Game 2, and they took it all the way home, 4-2, over the Padres.

It was a rare hot and dry Saipan evening as Cardinals ace, K.J. Villagomez—backed up by stellar defensive plays— threw heaters and pitched a complete game that left the Padres’ lineup reeling.

Both teams’ aces were on the mound which basically almost shut down their offense, but it was the Cardinals’ aggressiveness on the base paths—paired up with the Padres’ inability to bring home more runners in scoring position—that sealed the deal for the Cardinals in a low scoring Game 2 of the best-of-three championship series.

The Padres had opportunities with runners on base, but left them stranded as Villagomez denied them entry when it mattered most. At the top of the ninth, no outs, and just a two-run Cardinals lead, the plans for a Padres rally came crashing down as miscues from Keith Kintol on second base allowed him to be picked off by the Cards’ catcher for the first out.

Kyle Hocog then moved the runner on first with a single, but the next two batters lucked out with their hits as the two outs were registered without a single run crossing home plate for the Padres.

The Cardinals drew first blood at the bottom of the second inning from an RBI base hit by T.J. Sablan, who scored Tony Tenorio all the way from second base. The Padres then tied it up, 1-1, at the top of the third from a long shot by Darion Jones who brought home Ben Jones Jr. Then right at his heels, Tony Salas got a little too greedy and was out at home from the relay.

At the bottom half of the third, the Cardinals responded right away with two runs from a two RBI single by Nate Camacho to put them up, 3-2. The Padres then crept up with a line drive on the right side by Kintol who brought in Salas for a 2-3 game.

But the Cardinals scored one more in the sixth inning which was enough as Villagomez and their defense put in the work to keep the Padres from initiating a rally.

Cardinals head coach Juan Manibusan said after the finals that most of the team members are the same as their team last year. In the finals, he said, “We had the defense tonight. We don’t have much offense because their ace pitcher is out tonight. But all the boys worked hard and worked as a team. And that’s how you get to be the champ—work as a team.”

On whether they had an inkling that they’ll take the championship on game two that night, he said, “We didn’t pocket it but we knew we were going to take it because we had the advantage already. We took game one and we really wanted to take game two because we really wanted to end it tonight.”

As for how the season went, he said, “It was kind of long. We only played 10 games out of 12 because there are 13 teams, so we didn’t get to play against the Padres in the regular season. It was our first time playing against them.”

The manager of the Cardinals is Pat Tenorio, while the assistant coach is Chuck Cabrera. The finals roster with Villagomez, Sablan, Tony Tenorio, and Camacho, included Jerald Cabrera, Nokki Saralu, Eli Aughenbaugh, Brian Camacho, Pat Tenorio Jr., Tyler Flores, and Peter Tenorio.

The Cardinals were the fourth seed in the regular season and ousted No. 1 seed Falcons during the semis. They then took on No. 3 seed Padres and made light work of them in Game 1 with a 17-8 blowout last Sept. 25.

After the finals, there was an awards ceremony where they announced the season’s individual winners and the winning teams. Results of that will be posted in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.