No Mercy, Ballers reign in awards

No Mercy and Ballers reeled in the coveted hardware as members of the Budweiser-Bud Light Billiard League met at the soon to be opening Shooter’s Sports Bar just before the weekend to celebrate the end of another successful season of banks, breaks, and buddies with their awards banquet.

The A Division champions walked away with $390 and the first place trophy as Senen Pangelinan, Erwin Gomez, Joey Lucido, Boyet Sequioco, and Rowel Mariano edged out second place finisher Destroyers by one point over the course of the 10-week season.

The experienced squad has been together as a team for the past three seasons, but the “Dream Team” said that they will most likely move on rather than play together for a fourth because they have too many guns for their competition.

“The organizers said that they may not have another team to compete at our level so they would like us to disband and form another team through a random draw,” said Lucido.

Each of the cue kings is no stranger to the felt of the Saipan scene, as they average 11 years of residence between the five of them, and their captain said that his secret to winning is just to relax and enjoy the game.

“The important thing is sportsmanship. That’s the best thing—to test your skill and enjoy yourself. I always tell the guys not to give up and to just keep playing without worrying about the other team’s scores. Let’s just have fun,” he said.

Luis Fajardo, Robert Sanciangco, RJ Mascarinas, Willy Roman, Lito Cabrera, and Rolly Villanueva of the Destroyers didn’t walk away empty handed as they begged $234 for second, while Jerry Soriano, Rommel Crisostomo, Frank Pangelinan, Juancho Mendoza, and Mario Diola of Verizon dialed up third place with $156.

The Ballers finally took home the big prize in the B Division, as Ed Probst, Vic Hocog, Charlie Peters, Don Andrew Kapileo, and Josh Gibson

“It’s a big thing for us. This was our third year, so I guess the third time’s a charm,” said Probst.

While his Cinderella squad wasn’t sure if they were coming back to defend their title next season in the B ranks or advance to play with the big boys in the A Division, he said that they will deal with that and more later.

“We were talking about moving to the A Division and about sticking together, but we’ll worry about that tomorrow. Tonight we’re just going to enjoy it,” he said

After a brief break, the league will continue again next month, but organizer Frank Prinz said that the teams will have new digs for their games when he opens up Shooters in September.

Next up for the league is the Captain’s Meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 7 at Shooters (located behind Gold Beach Hotel) at 8pm. For more information contact Prinz by calling 287-5005