Jets repeat as Senior League champs

Defending champion Jets pounced on two crucial errors from the Fielders in the top of the seventh inning to score a come-from-behind 9-8 victory in the finals of the 2008 Senior League yesterday at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

Training 8-7 and down to their final two at-bats, the Jets took advantage of an error by the Fielders shortstop that allowed Toby Fleming to race home and score when he should have been stranded at second base.

With the game tied at 8-8, Jimmy Brel hit a sacrifice fly to shallow first base, which was caught for the second out.

But to the dismay of the Fielders faithful, Eli Aughenbach was also carefully looking at the action and quietly tagged up at third base when the Fielders were visibly celebrating and was already safe at home scoring the decisive run when the Fielders finally realized their mental lapse.

By the time, relief pitcher Tom Agulto retired Juan Iguel, the damage was already done and the Jets held a 9-8 lead into the bottom of the seventh and final inning.

Whatever faint hopes the Fielders had for a last-ditch comeback was immediately extinguished by hard-hitting Jets pitcher Chris Myers, who after taking the mound vice Davin Camacho, settled down and went to work.

And it was most evident in the final three outs, as Myers forced opposing pitcher Agulto to ground out to first before allowing a base hit by James Sablan.

Sablan won’t go anywhere though as Wenomer Namelo was forced out on a relay from third base to first and then delivered the coup de grace when he struck out Rudy Aldan.

The Jets dugout immediately spilled over to the field when the final out was called and the blue and red celebrated inside the diamond their improbable victory.

The Jets led early, scoring two runs in the first off a shaky start by pitcher Anthony Tenorio to lead 2-1. It was a seesaw battle after that as Fielders took a 3-2 lead in the second before making it a 5-4 advantage after the third.

The Fielders and Jets scored three runs apiece in the fourth to give the Fielders an 8-7 lead, leaving the latter in a heap of trouble. But as manager Darren Flores said the Jets just seem to find ways to win in the final inning.

“All year long we’ve been fighting. All year long we’ve been playing Jets baseball and the top of the last inning is always Jets baseball. We never give up until it’s over. We play all the way until the last out,” he said.

Flores acknowledged that the Jets wouldn’t even be in a position to win if not for the Fielders’ mistakes in the final inning.

“We’ll take any error they give us and we’ll take any run. It’s a beautiful game. I’ll give credit to the Fielders. All year long they played hard baseball against us but it’s just the best team that came out on top today and it was the team that didn’t make the mistake and that’s why we came out victorious,” he said.

Flores thanked the Jets sponsors Juan Santiago Tenorio, Jim Gephardt of Pacific Amusement, and Megabyte Saipan for supporting the team this season of yet another championship for his boys.

“Everybody did their part. The pitching came through. Everybody settled down. Even if our players only had one at-bat, they came through. If they needed to bunt just to move the runner over, they move them over. We took it last year and we’re back-to-back champs. Although we didn’t get the pennant this year, we got the championship and that’s the most important!”

Patriots and Lion’s Heart are also 2008 champs

Two other teams were crowned Sunday as the Patriots translated its one-loss season to yet another championship in the Major League, while Lion’s Heart roared to victory in the finals of the Junior League.

The Patriots proved to one and all that they are this era’s most dominant team in the Majors after exacting a 15-0, mercy run shortened win against the Dragons in last Sunday’s anticlimactic championship.

Lion’s Heart, meanwhile, got crucial hits from brothers Ricardo and Richard Dela Cruz to nip the Junior Jets, 3-2.

The results of the Big League finals between Falcons and Fielders yesterday was still not available as of press time.