CNMI Little Leaguers drop third game 3-0

If you were one of the night owls who stayed up all night or if planned ahead by setting your alarm clock for 1am Wednesday morning, you may have seen the CNMI Little League All-Stars play a game of baseball with the best of the Pabao Little League from Willemstad, Curacao.

Had you tuned into ESPN 2, you would have seen pitcher Tony Rogolifoi Jr. pitch a great game against the team from the Caribbean, parents and friends of the island team cheering in the stands, Keith Kintol with a bag of sunflower seeds in the dugout, and heard Major League Baseball announcers Harold Reynolds and Gary Thorne struggle while pronouncing the names of Northern Marianas Islands hard-ballers.

The boys were once again on the losing side of the stick as they dropped a 3-0 decision to the Caribbean despite quality pitching. The offense was never really able to get anything going, and fielding errors sunk the squad.

“Rogo” led the team in at the plate, going a perfect 2-for-2, while teammates Anthony Tenorio (2-for-3), Eric Tenorio (1-for-1), and Ike Aldan (1-for-1) did their part for the team.

On the mound, “Rogo” threw 68 pitches, and 52 were for strikes. He didn’t walk a single batter, went the distance, allowed three runs off of seven hits, and struck out five.

The Caribbean took the lead in the top of the second inning, added another in the top of the third, and smacked a solo homer in the top of the sixth to cap off the scoring. All throughout the game, the CNMI was in the game and had chances to score, but the runs never materialized.

It just wasn’t in the cards for the Pacific Regional Champions this year, but there’s bound to be improvement next year with this experience under their belts. At the very least, the team had the benefit of seeing a variety of pitches from international pitchers first hand.

They also experienced playing in front of thousand of fans attending one of their ball games, as well as playing on television.

The CNMI is one of four teams in Pool D, and finished the preliminary round in fourth place at 0-3, while the Caribbean finished at the top with a perfect 3-0 and will face the second place team from Pool C, the Asian team from Chinese Taipei (2-1), in the International Semi-Finals. At 2-1, Mexico will face the first place finisher from Pool C, the Latin American All-Stars from Panama City, Panama (3-0), in the other International Semi-Final. Saudi Arabia fell to 1-2, exiting the tournament when they fell to the Caribbean team on the previous day.

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 should be proud of themselves.

Though they weren’t able to come away with a win, they were in every game, with three runs being the margin of victory in all of the contests.

The semi-finals for the International Pool will be aired on ESPN at 7am this morning and tomorrow morning, while the finals of the International Pool will to be played on Sunday, Aug. 28, at 4am Saipan local time. The winner will advance to the World Series Championship Game on Monday, Aug. 30, at 8:30pm Saipan local time.

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