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D-9ers and Verizon spread Christmas cheer
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Posted on Dec 10 2004
With only a couple of weeks remaining until the North Pole’s busiest night of the year, the D-9ers and the Verizon Sluggers of the Men’s Island Wide Fast Pitch Softball League proved to their opponents that it is far better to give than to receive, as they both won their games in convincing fashion Thursday night at the Oleai Sports Complex.
The D-9ers (8-3) brought their “A-game” to the diamond against the Islanders (3-9), as they opened up with four-run first inning that set the tone for the rest of the abbreviated 15-4 contest.
Paul Camacho led the charge for the boys from District 9 with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate that included a single, a triple, and a two-run homerun in the top of the sixth for the final tallies of the night. Down by 11 runs, the Islanders were unable to answer in the bottom of the inning, and the game was called on account of the 10-run mercy rule.
Camacho’s teammate Roy Celis was 1-for-3 with the stick, but his only hit was a timely two-run dinger in the top of the third that took the wind out of the Islanders’ sails.
With four games remaining, the D-9ers need three wins or a Verizon loss to lock up second place in the overall standings because the Sluggers (6-6) evened up their record on Thursday with a 28-9 victory over Kagman 1-2-3 (3-10).
Verizon wasted no time against the homesteaders, as they led off the first inning with a six-run salvo, and followed it up with an 11-run second and a 10-run third highlighted by back-to-back homeruns by John Sablan and J.R. Suel. Kagman 1-2-3 didn’t score a run until they were down 27-0 in the bottom of the third, when they capitalized on Verizon walks and errors to rally for seven runs off of four hits.
Their offense produced a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth as well, but Kagman 1-2-3 was unable to overcome the initial blow from the Sluggers, and the game was called in the bottom of the fifth via the mercy rule.
Sablan finished the night 3-for-4 at the plate with four runs batted in, and was a triple shy of the cycle. Suel went 3-for-5 on the night with five ribbies, and needed a double away from the cycle.
