{"id":369212,"date":"2022-05-26T06:02:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T20:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=369212"},"modified":"2022-05-26T06:02:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T20:02:55","slug":"were-going-to-come-in-as-underdogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/were-going-to-come-in-as-underdogs\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re going to come in as underdogs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Members of the CNMI National Baseball Team warm up before the start of their inter-squad scrimmage with umpires last Saturday at the Miguel \u201cTan Ge\u201d Basa Pangelinan Ball Field.(MARK RABAGO )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the last two seasons of the Saipan Baseball League mothballed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the damage sustained from Super Typhoon Yutu by the Francisco \u201cTan\u2019Ko\u201d M. Palacios Baseball Field, the CNMI National Baseball Team is actually not the gold medal favorite for next month\u2019s Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022.<\/p>\n

In fact, national baseball head coach Deron Flores went as far as labeling the team as the \u201cunderdogs\u201d in the five-team Mini Games field that includes Guam, Palau, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to come in as underdogs, but we\u2019re going to come in with our heads up high and we\u2019re gonna play NMI baseball. We\u2019re not going to take any team lightly and we\u2019re not going to underestimate anyone. We\u2019re going to take it one game at a time,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune before the team\u2019s first inter-squad scrimmage with umpires last Saturday at the Miguel \u201cTan Ge\u201d Basa Pangelinan Ball Field.<\/p>\n

Flores said despite having no real-game experience as a team, the players are peaking at the right time and said that they\u2019re about ready to give their 100% when the Mini Games unfurl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t played for the last three years because of the typhoon and the pandemic but we\u2019ve been getting inter-squad scrimmages prior to our cuts last year. For the past month we went back to doing our inter-squad scrimmages as well as live pitching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what type of team this 2022 iteration of the CNMI National Baseball Team is, Flores could only say it\u2019s a well-balanced one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been on it having started our training since last year in November so we\u2019re about game-ready. It\u2019s a well-balanced and an all-around team. We got pitching, we got speed, we got defense, we got power, we have spray hitters, contact hitters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pitching ace Josh Jones said the team is ready to defend the gold medal it won the last time baseball was played in the Pacific Games, which was 2011 in New Caledonia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re almost there and the team\u2019s ready. We have really, really good chemistry and we\u2019re still building on it. I don\u2019t see us having weaknesses right now and we\u2019re just trying to get better as a team and do our job and perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former University of West Alabama Tigers flamethrower said the team\u2019s pitching and defense is what they\u2019ll be hanging their hats on.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense and pitching right now is our best attributes and our hitting is just below those two but we\u2019re just getting better. One thing good about hitting is it\u2019s very easy to improve and the way I see it now they\u2019re getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones also doesn\u2019t see training at the smaller \u201cTan Ge\u201d ballfield as a disadvantage as opposed to the \u201cTan\u2019Ko\u201d ballfield which was out of commission due to a much-needed makeover for the Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a field right here that\u2019s almost like a high school baseball field. We do our scrimmages here at least three times a week right now. But the way I see it, it doesn\u2019t matter what field you\u2019re on a Little League field or a big field we\u2019re going to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outfielder Juan Iguel echoed Jones\u2019 observation that the team is about ready to lock horns with the best in the region. <\/p>\n

\u201cTraining is doing good and the boys are getting there. We\u2019re going to be ready come game time. We have good teamwork, good chemistry out there, and good communication which is very important on the field. I also believe our defense is going to be tough and we\u2019re going to be fast, we\u2019re always going to be fast, as Team CNMI is always fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iguel added he\u2019s also excited to play Guam in the team\u2019s first game, which curiously is happening a day before the June 17 Mini Games opening ceremony. <\/p>\n

\u201cFacing Guam is something we\u2019re going to look forward to. Of course everybody knows CNMI-Guam matchups are always the best rivalry in sports in Micronesia. It\u2019s going to be exciting and it\u2019s going to be tough and we\u2019re not going to count anybody out. We\u2019re going to play from the first to the last inning and we\u2019re going to give it all we got.\u201d <\/p>\n

After game against Guam, the CNMI will then play Palau, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands in the one-round robin tournament. Only the Top 4 teams advance to the medal round where the No. 1 seed takes on the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed squares off against the No. 3 seed. The winners will then face off against each other for the gold medal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the last two seasons of the Saipan Baseball League mothballed due to the COVID-19…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":369197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369212","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}