{"id":225525,"date":"2016-04-15T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=225525"},"modified":"2016-04-15T06:00:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:00:11","slug":"nakamura-ahead-riungel-lieto-top-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nakamura-ahead-riungel-lieto-top-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nakamura ahead; Riungel, Lieto on top"},"content":{"rendered":"
Yankees pitcher Peter Lieto, right, warms up with teammate Gary Cruz during their opening game against the Blue Jays in the 2016 Saipan Baseball League late last month at the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Ballfield. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Yankees\u2019 Franco Nakamura and Falcons\u2019 Ricky Joe Riungel and the Yankees Peter Lieto are the early leaders in the batting and pitching races in the 2016 Saipan Baseball League.<\/p>\n

Nakamura is on top of the batting charts with his .833 average from a 5-for-6 at bat in the Yankees\u2019 first two games. Nakamura is ahead of the Falcons\u2019 A.J. Evangelista and the GSM Brewers\u2019 Nokki Saralu, who recorded similar .572 average in the first two matches after going 4-for-7. The Aces\u2019 Lamarc Iguel and Blue Jays\u2019 Keola Camacho rounded out the Top 5 after earning identical .500 averages with the former hitting 4-for-8 and the latter going 3-for-6.<\/p>\n

Ten more players made it to the pitching leadeboard, which was based on 6 or more at bats. The Chalan Kanoa Bears\u2019 Jose Lizama went 4-for-9 for an average of .445 to place sixth and was followed by the Falcons\u2019 Barry Sunumai, the North Starz\u2019 Tim Cruz , and Titanium\u2019s Ton Leon Guerrero and Patrick Tenorio, who posted identical averages of .429 for firing 3-for-7. Completing the list were the Yankees\u2019 Ben Leon Guerrero (.400\/4-for-10), the Bears\u2019 Peyton Lizama (.400\/4-for-10), and A.J. Lizama (.400\/4-for-10), the Brewers\u2019 Byron Kaipat (.375\/3-for-8), and the Yankees\u2019 Gary Cruz (.364\/4-for-11).<\/p>\n

Peyton Lizama has the most runs so far in the league with six, while Tim Cruz, and the Aces\u2019 Juan Iguel have recorded five each. Cruz also has two doubles to tie the Yankees\u2019 Peter Tomokane, while in triples category, six players have one apiece. In the RBIs race, Tomokane and A.J. Lizama are ahead with four each, while the Brewers\u2019 Pat Alepuyo, Blue Jays\u2019 Quinson Blas, and the Yankees\u2019s Gary Cruz have tallied three apiece. No player has yet to make a home run in the early stage of the league.<\/p>\n

In the pitching race, Riungel and Lieto are tied for the lead with their similar 0.00 ERA. Riungel gave up no earned run in eight innings pitch, while Lieto did the same in five innings.<\/p>\n

The two young pitchers are ahead of the Bears\u2019 Jeffrey Lizama (1.42 ERA), the Aces\u2019 Michael Muna Jr. (1.50 ERA), the Brewers\u2019 Leonard Sablan (1.50 ERA), the Blue Jays\u2019 Keola Camacho (1.80 ERA), the Yankees Kelvin Kapileo (1.80), the North Starz\u2019s V.J. Camacho (2.84 ERA), the Brewers\u2019 Vince Cepeda (3.18 ERA), and the Bears\u2019 Jose Lizama Jr. (3.38 ERA). The pitching leaders were based on five or more inning pitched.<\/p>\n

In the strikeouts category, Muna enjoys the top view with his 17 Ks, while Jose Lizama Jr. has earned 13. Lieto and Titanium\u2019s Joe Palacios have 11 apiece, while Keola Camacho and Cepeda have eight each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Yankees\u2019 Franco Nakamura and Falcons\u2019 Ricky Joe Riungel and the Yankees Peter Lieto are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":225526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10938,2127,133,1352],"class_list":["post-225525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-falcons-barry-sunumai","tag-gary-cruz","tag-run","tag-saipan-baseball-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}