Saipan Jr. All-Stars not taking Tinian lightly

While no Little League team from Tinian has ever advanced to the Asia-Pacific Regional Tournament, Saipan Junior All-Stars manager Vinnie Sablan is not taking any chances and told his team to go all out in their three-game series against the Tinian Junior All-Stars this weekend at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

The past two days, the 15-man team has been practicing from 10am to 4pm at the Oleai Sports Complex under the watchful eye of Sablan and coaches Wally Emul and Oliver Secharmidal.

Sablan said he has already told his players to approach the Junior League District Tournament as if it were the Asia-Pacific Regional Tournament.

“I stressed it from the very beginning that just because it’s a district tournament—and in the past Saipan has always beaten Tinian—that it’s a given that we would win. Anything can happen in baseball. That’s why I told them to play Tinian as if they’re playing Indonesia, Guam, the Philippines, or any other team for that matter,” he said.

Sablan added that the Little League format, which mandates participating teams to play a round robin and then a championship game even if there are only two teams, opens up a number of tempting scenarios for managers.

But Sablan’s focus is to try to sweep all three matches against Tinian this weekend.

“We just want to win all the games. That’s the easiest way to put it. Not lose the first two or win the first one and lose the second one. We want to build momentum starting in the first, play better in the second game, and play our best baseball in the championship game on Sunday,” he said.

Sablan said he expects the Saipan Junior All-Stars to score a lot of runs against Tinian this weekend and hopefully hold their own in defense against the boys from the neighboring island.

“I want them to get in tune and have them play together for the Asia-Pacific Tournament which is the next level of play. I expect superb pitching from our No. 1 pitchers and superb hitting from all the players against Tinian,” he said.

He said, so far, the biggest challenge has been molding a bunch of all-star players into one cohesive all-star team.

“The past four months they’ve been playing with another group of players. They already have a groove playing with their original teams and now trying to get that away from them in a span of one week is tough. They already have the skill, they have the mental game, and they have the emotion in them. They’re all all-star players. The only thing they need to improve on is the way they communicate with one another,” said Sablan.

The 2008 Saipan Junior All-Stars include Jets’ Harry Nakamura, Joe Palacios, McGarett Duenas, and Anthony Salas, Ol’Aces’ Lamarc Iguel, Rocco Reyes, Jesse Yamagishi, and Diego Camacho, Fielders’ Nathan De Leon Guerrero and Peter Tenorio, and Lion Heart’s Leroy Regis and Dela Cruz brothers Richard and Ricardo.