CNMI Little Leaguers unable to beat Mexico

While most of CNMI was sleeping early Tuesday morning, its Little League All-Stars were battling the best of Mexico in Williamsport, PA during the 2004 Little League World Series in front of a crowd of more than 7,700 fans and an unknown number of television viewers tuned into ESPN 2.

Unfortunately, the hard-ballers from the Northern Marianas Islands were not able to gain an advantage over the All-Stars from the Guadalupe Linda Vista Little League, losing by the score of 6-3 in action at the Lamade Stadium.

From the start of the game, the CNMI found themselves in a hole as the bats of Mexico were in full swing. Mexican Shortstop Ismael Garcia took a Cameron Sers Nicolas pitch downtown to give his team a lead that they would never surrender.

To their credit, the CNMI battled back to cut the lead to a run when Anthony Tenorio crossed the plate in the top of the second inning to make it a 2-1 game. Mexico answered back by scoring four runs in the bottom of the inning to take a commanding 6-1 lead.

Sers Nicolas was unable to finish the inning, but he didn’t get much help from his outfielders, who miffed a couple of hits in the second. The Cam-man left the game after throwing 36 pitches in one and a third innings, and was relieved by Justin Alexander. When the big J-A joined the fray, the bases were already loaded, but an error in the field and a three-run shot by Oscar Garza cleared the bags.

The CNMI All-Stars managed to inch into the lead by scoring a run in the fourth when R-Jay Joe went yard. They would add another run in the top of the sixth, but that would be all that they could muster against the Mexicans.

The CNMI is one of four teams in Pool D, and they are currently sitting in fourth place at 0-2, while Mexico (2-1) climbed ahead of Saudi Arabia (1-1) with the win, but they are still behind the only undefeated team in the pool, the representative from the Caribbean at 1-0.

This edition of the CNMI All-Star team will play its final game at Lamade Stadium this morning in a match up with Willemstad, Curacao of the Pabao Little League at 1am Saipan local time.

Philip Manalo, Alex Benevente, Keith Kintol, Eli Augenbaugh, Ofero Taitano, Cameron Ser Nicolas, Eric Tenorio, David Camacho, Donovan George, Justin Alexander, Anthony Rogolifoi, Ike Aldan, R-Jay Joe, and Anthony Tenorio have one last shot at exiting the tournament with a win when they take on the Caribbean team, to be seen on ESPN 2 (channel 40 on KMCV) in the wee hours of this morning.

The semi-finals for the International Pool take place on Wednesday at 4pm and at the same time on Thursday.

The finals of the International Pool will to be played on Saturday, Aug. 28, at 3pm, with the winner advancing to the World Series Championship Game on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 6:30pm EST.

The Championship Game will be televised on ABC while the International Semi-finals and finals will be broadcast on ESPN.