The CNMI Little League All-Star team presented the trophy and banner that they earned this past week in the Asia\/Pacific Regional Baseball Tournament to Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday afternoon at his office in exchange for words of praise.<\/p>\n
The governor expressed his sense of pride as he congratulated them for their efforts in the games and for representing the Commonwealth. He also explained how pleased he was that he was able to meet them as they arrived at the airport from Guam on Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n
The governor thanked the players for doing a terrific job in Guam, and also recognized the people that provided them with the necessary support along the way. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to congratulate you for working as a team. Baseball is not the sport of a one-man team. It is a game that has to have everybody working together, and what you did in Guam is how teamwork works. Not only did you demonstrate teamwork on the field, but the parents, the coaches, and the managers also worked together as a team so congratulations to all of you\u2013from the administrator on down to managers, and the parents especially. I\u2019m really impressed with the parents. You guys are just outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor went on to express his confidence in the boys\u2019 ability to continue their winning ways in the mainland, as well as giving them a little incentive to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cCong. Underwood was just here, and he was telling me that in our paper we have the headline banners that the CNMI Little League had won, but in the PDN\u2014you know how sometimes very subtly, how we\u2019re kind of rivals with Guam? He said that it was amazing how the PDN reported that Guam lost the little league, but they didn\u2019t say who they lost to, and no mention of the CNMI winning. Who did they lose to? That\u2019s what we\u2019re interested in knowing. But you know Guam and everybody else will know who beat Guam when you guys win the World Series in Williamsport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Little League All-stars will be going to South Williamsport, Pennsylvania to face the top teams from Mexico, the Caribbean and the Trans-Atlantic team, and team manager Tony Benevente knows what must be done to get the boys ready for the pinnacle of the sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got two weeks to prepare for Williamsport. We\u2019re going to do a lot better, a lot more aggressive training, a lot more conditioning and speed because that\u2019s what we need. We\u2019re going against three good teams in Mexico, Caribbean, and Trans-Atlantic. Knowing how they play, knowing their skills and knowing their talent, these kids are good.\u201d<\/p>\n
After pulling out amazing victories over the competition, Benevente shared some of the philosophy that brought home the banner. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe first day against Guam we were all psyched out. The kids were looking at the fans instead of watching the game. The next day we were okay and we finally made it. They picked up their bats and picked up their momentum and knowing how we trained them, they were ready. I told them if they wanted it so bad, that they gotta do it, earn it. You can\u2019t be giving up.\u201d <\/p>\n
Justin Alexander explained how he scored the game-winning run in the final game against Indonesia. \u201cI\u2019m sitting there on third base and all of a sudden there was a wild pitch. I just went as fast as I could and I crossed the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earning a trip to the Little League World Series is a dream come true for All-Star R-Jay Joe. \u201cIt was my dream to go to Pennsylvania and I finally made it,\u201d said the standout slugger.<\/p>\n
An experienced baseball player himself, Benevente seems just as excited as the boys themselves, \u201cIt\u2019s a thrill of a lifetime. This one\u2019s the best, this one\u2019s the tops, this is the Little League World Series! This is the dream that everybody, every manager, every Little League player wants to go to. Finally we\u2019re there and we\u2019ll be on our way to South Williamsport, PA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saipan Little League president Joe Borja shared his goals for the league with the boys as well. \u201cOne person from Guam said \u2018Mr. Borja, you\u2019ve reached your goal.\u2019 I looked at him and I said \u2018No. We have not reached our goal. Yes, this is a preliminary goal, but my goal is to see at least one person from the CNMI in the Major League. That is my goal.\u2019 So you see young people, it is not over yet. Let\u2019s continue working together. There will be obstacle, that\u2019s life. We beat Indonesia with a population of millions and millions. We beat the Philippines with a population of millions and millions. We also beat Guam with a population of thousands and thousands. Here we are on this small rock in the Pacific, the Pacific champions. What does that tell you? It tells you that it\u2019s not the size that counts, it\u2019s what’s in here (points to the head) and in here (points to the heart) that counts.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI Little League All-Star team presented the trophy and banner that they earned this past week in the Asia\/Pacific Regional Baseball Tournament to Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday afternoon at his office in exchange for words of praise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82959","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}