{"id":397497,"date":"2023-08-09T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=397497"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Cardinals-take-Game-1-of-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Cardinals-take-Game-1-of-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals take Game 1 of finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Top 2 baseball teams\u2014the experienced and undefeated Cardinals and the up-and-coming young sluggers of the Junior Nationals\u2014clashed in Game 1 of the 2023 Tan Holdings-Saipan Baseball League\u2019s best-of-3 championship series on a rare clear night Monday at the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field.<\/p>\n

It was definitely a fight to the finish as both teams took advantage of the absence of rain and played until the late hours\u2014where the Cardinals\u2019 six-run eighth inning secured their Game 1 win, 16-7.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals\u2019 top of the order struck first as they brought in three runs in the first inning against Junior Nationals pitcher Jon Diaz. After Diaz allowed Shane Yamada on base via a walk, the league\u2019s batting champ Nokki Saralu found a gap for a base hit that brought in Yamada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Poland Masaharu got on base on balls, while Saralu scored from an RBI single by Brian Camacho. Diaz got out of the jam after walking Eli Aughenbaugh and Keoni Kaipat, then finally proceeding to get three outs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Junior Nationals were then back in the game after they tied it up, 3-3 in the second inning. Andre Iguel started things off with the first run, then a second run by Jylon Sablan from an RBI double from Joell Borja.\u00a0<\/p>\n

J.R. Suel then loaded the bases on a walk and after, Achilles Evangelista scored the third run from an RBI walk.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals\u2019 offense then proceeded to pick up their pitching staff as they scored six runs in the third inning for a six-run lead that went unanswered until the sixth inning.<\/p>\n

The Junior Nationals\u2019 Suel broke the silence after he got into scoring position and was brought home by Angelo Igitol, but they couldn\u2019t tack on any more runs before three outs were made and were down, 4-10.<\/p>\n

In the eighth inning, the Cardinals dashed the hopes of the Junior Nationals for a close game as they scored six runs on account of the Junior Nationals\u2019 faltering defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four Cardinals batters\u2014Saralu, Masaharu, Camacho, and Nate Smith\u2014got on base through errors, which the rest of the lineup capitalized on and scored them in plus two more runs for good measure.<\/p>\n

The Junior Nationals tried to make a comeback in the last inning and fell short as only three runs came in, but not due to a lack of effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Borja, Suel, and Evangelista scored from their teammates\u2019 fight in the batters\u2019 box, but the Cardinals\u2019 12-run lead was just too steep to chip away at before three outs registered and the lights turned off on an exciting Game 1.<\/p>\n

Although a looming rainy weather forecast is expected for tonight, Game 2 is scheduled as the Cardinals try to sweep the Junior Nationals\u2014and the Junior Nationals try to take it into a winner-take-all, tie-breaking third game this Friday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Junior Nationals\u2019 J.R. Suel was tagged out just in time by Cardinals third baseman Nokki Saralu during Game 1 of the best-of-3 championship series in the 2023 Tan Holdings-Saipan Baseball League Monday night at the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

A beautiful sunset sky was the backdrop of Cardinals\u2019 Shane Yamada\u2019s at-bat as they took on the Junior Nationals in the first game of the best-of-3 championship series in the 2023 Tan Holdings-Saipan Baseball League Monday night at the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES<\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Top 2 baseball teams\u2014the experienced and undefeated Cardinals and the up-and-coming young sluggers of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397497","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}