Falcons claw D9ers, 15-4

Tanapag Falcons followed up their big win against Ford Rangers last Friday by rolling over a listless D9ers San Roque team, 15-4, in Tuesday night’s game in the 2008 Budweiser Saipan Major League at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

The defending champions improved their record to 9-4, while dealing D9ers its seventh loss in 12 games all thanks to an eight-run first inning highlighted by four consecutive singles by Tanapag’s top of the order and Mike Pangelinan’s two RBI triple.

San Roque made it 1-8 in the next inning when John Tenorio drove in Ben Mesa, but Tanapag retaliated with two home plate crossings of its own in the third to make it 10-1.

Pangelinan then took advantage of a pass ball to make it 11-1 in the top of the fourth before D9ers chased Tanapag starting pitcher Joshua Muna from the mound with three runs in the bottom of the inning that made it 11-4.

That was about it for the D9ers’ hitting, however, as Muna’s replacement Hans Pua was simply lights out throwing to the plate.

In the top of the fifth, his batters gave him three more insurance runs for good measure to pad the lead to 14-4.

Then in the bottom of the fifth, Pua made it a 1-2-3 affair when he followed up Jeff Tenorio’s fly ball to rightfield with consecutive strikeouts to Chris Camacho and Ton Camacho.

The defending champs then put themselves in better position to win via mercy run rule when Ned Norita scooted home on an error by D9ers shortstop Mesa to make it 15-4 in the sixth.

Pua again worked his magic from the No. 1 spot, forcing Mesa and Pat Alepuyo to fly out before striking out John Benavente to come within three strikes of recording the save for Tanapag.

After a scoreless seventh for the Falcons, Pua delivered the coup de grace to the D9ers when he served another 1-2-3 inning that saw Larry Tenorio fly out to first base, Ben Babauta to second, and Bob Lizama called out on three strikes.

Norita and Jess Taitano each had a 3-for-5 performance for the Falcons, while four other players finished at .500 or better from the plate.

Alepuyo led the D9ers in the loss, going 2-for-3, while joined by Larry and John Tenorio with an RBI each.

On Monday, Rock Steady remained unscathed, improving to 13-0 following its 14-4 victory over Korean Dreams. That followed Rock Steady’s win by forfeit against the D9ers last week.