CNMI takes silver on Guam

After cruising through the Pacific Islanders Masters Tournament with five straight wins, the thundering locomotive that was the Saipan Masters II finally ran out of steam on Saturday, as they fell to the Guam Masters I in the finals by a 21-8 score to land the silver medal.

“[The tournament] was not really competitive, although we tried to compete against Guam. They were a much better team than us. Our problem is that we didn’t have enough players. We went down there with one team and had to divide them into two,” said player/manager Tony Rogolifoi.

The Saipan Masters II team played the entire tournament with only 11 players on the roster, and Rogolifoi said that there would have been a difference in the finals had the local team been fully stacked.

“The outcome would have been different if we had the full squad with us so we could bring in new players as opposed to yesterday when I only had one substitute,” he said.

The turning point in the game came in the third inning when local hurler Kaleb Dulei got stung for a grand slam that broke open the 3-3 tie to give the Guamanians the lead for good. Before the inning was over, the Guam Masters scored eight runs off of three hits. Dulei was a star for the team throughout the tournament, but he didn’t experience the same success in the finals.

The Saipan Masters II was unable to answer in the bottom of the inning, and Guam put the game out of reach with six more runs in the fourth.
“They came with a full squad yesterday in the championship game—they brought they’re best. Those players that I didn’t see since the first game showed up in the championship game. I guess they didn’t want to be embarrassed on their own turf so they brought their best. They will do anything to beat us because they know that we have a strong baseball program here in the CNMI,” Rogolifoi said.
Despite the loss, Rogolifoi said that both of the teams had a good time on Guam and that they plan return with a different outcome the next time around.

“It was a good tournament, it was fun, and the Australians invited us to the Gold Coast for next year’s tournament.”
In the consolation game, the Saipan Masters I crushed the Australian Dodgers for 12 runs off of 10 hits to earn the 12-3 win as George Castro picked up the win atop the mound after allowing three runs off of six hits through three innings of work.