Lady Blue Jays soar to 3-peat

The Lady Blue Jays flew to the softball title for the third time in a row after shutting down BDE, 7-5, in the 2024 Budweiser Belau Amateur Softball Association women’s division finals last Sunday at the Dandan Softball Field.

Under the same manager, Froilan Camacho, the team, formerly known as the Queen of Diamonds in the 2022 season, has won the championship three times now.

Despite a slightly new roster this season, the team kept afloat and reached the finals against a formidable BDE team.

Lady Blue Jays pitcher Angel Deleon Guerrero and her defense silenced a fiery BDE lineup in their best-of-3 championship matchup. They won their first game, 7-4, last April 21, and secured the championship with their Game 2 win last Sunday.

In their final game last Sunday, BDE’s bats couldn’t find holes in Lady Blue Jays’ defense as they went scoreless in four innings. Only five hits were registered against Deleon Guerrero, who was dominant on the mound.

The Lady Blue Jays got to work in the batter’s box and scored one in the second from a run by Cassie Camacho, then two more runs scored in the third from Kianu Aldan and Kiana “Baby K” Camacho, for a 3-0 lead.

BDE then got to swinging in the fifth and scored two runs to cut the lead by one, 2-3, but the Lady Blue Jays tacked on two more runs for a 5-2 game.

The Lady Blue Jays’ Britney Gopez then scored a much-needed run to lead, 6-2, but the rallying BDE brought home three for a close 5-6 game. The Top 3 in their lineup—Iggy Teliu, Oly Fritz, and Kona Tudela—scored, but they were then shut down by Deleon Guerrero.

In the last inning, the Lady Blue Jays scored just one more run which was enough to seal the win, as Deleon Guerrero held down BDE in order in their last at-bat.

With Deleon Guerrero and Camacho in the Lady Blue Jays are Destiny Pangelinan, Rita Villagomez, Kianu Aldan, Christy Aldan, Rayna Deleon Guerrero, Keolani Rios, Alannah Sablan, Cassie Camacho, Cindy Serrano, Brittney Gopez, and Carey Demapan.

Coach Camacho said in an interview after the game that their win was “a very overwhelming surprise. I thank my team and sponsors for bringing us together to play one more time.”

With some losses in the regular season, it broke their undefeated bid that they had from the 2023 season. Camacho said it was because there was a higher level of competition this year. “Some teams mixed together with other teams that brought them better players with more confidence,” he said. Along with that, they had some new players and he said, “We lost a couple but I just told the girls to stick together and do the best we can this season.”

As for their undefeated finals win, he said, “we just practiced hard. I told the girls to just keep committed and come to the game and perform their best.”

Results of the season’s individual awards will be posted in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.