Proa waits for challenger in finals

After tearing through the regular season competition, the Saipancell/NMC Proa rallied to edge the D-9ers 8-7 in the first round of the Island Wide Fast Pitch Softball League playoffs on Monday night to advance to the championships in a one-run game.

Tony Satur and company hadn’t played a game this close all season, and were it not for a three-run effort in the bottom of the seventh inning—fueled by an error by the D-9ers defense—the Proa would have found themselves on the outside looking in.

With two runners on base, Eric Lizama’s last-inning single to center turned out to be the turning point, as an improbable bounce of the ball allowed Proa to rally back from a 7-5 deficit to win the game.

After allowing a lead off homerun by Jerome Delos Santos to start the game, the Proa scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 3-1 lead. A two-run lead with pitcher Satur on the mound is usually good enough for a Proa victory, but the D-9ers brought their “A” game to the Oleai Sports Complex.

The D-9ers notched another run in the top of the second when Bob Guerrero hit an inside-the-park homerun, but Proa retook the two-run lead when Lizama smacked a single to make the score 4-2.

Both teams were blanked in the third by quality pitching and solid fielding, but the D-9ers tied the game in the top of the fourth inning when Dante and B.J. Sablan crossed the plate.

Tony Luzama gave the Proa the lead once again when he made it home in the bottom of the fourth for the 5-4 score. Silence again plagued the bats of both teams in the fifth and sixth innings, and it looked like Satur would put an end to the game with three quick outs, until the regular season runner-up D-9ers railed off three runs off of two hits and two walks to take the 7-5 lead.

Lizama’s bat did the talking in the bottom of the seventh to give the Proa the game, but they may face the D-9ers again in the finals pending the outcome of tonight’s game with the Verizon Sluggers.

The Sluggers advanced the semifinal round of the postseason by finally shaking the Islanders, 6-4, in the first round of the playoffs.

Third baseman Leo Bobai went 2-for-3 with a double, a single, and a run scored to lead the Sluggers over the Islanders, while teammate Eric Tudela went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and two runs scored.

Because of their strong finish in the regular season, the D-9ers get a second wind when they face the Sluggers in a battle to decide who advances to the finals with the Proa tonight at 6:30pm at the Oleai Sports Complex.