CNMI sluggers off to New Caledonia

The CNMI Baseball Team left for New Caledonia yesterday morning to compete in the 2011 Pacific Games.

The Commonwealth sluggers were the first batch of CNMI athletes to leave Saipan for the quadrennial competition that will kick off this Saturday. The squad has an 18-player roster with Tony Rogolifoi serving as manager.

The roster includes Joshua Jones, Juan Maratita, Eric Tenorio, Ian Rogolifoi, Nate Guerrero, Keoni Lizama, Mike Iguel, Vince Cepeda, Elton Santos, Jesus Iguel, Tyrone Omar, Franco Flores, Thomas Joab, Jerome Delos Santos, Byron Kaipat, Pete Tomokane, Manny Sablan, and Craig Sanchez, who will also serve as player/coach. Leading the CNMI baseball delegation is Saipan Major League president Rose Igitol. They boarded a connecting flight to Narita, Japan at 6am yesterday and are expected to arrive in Noumea today.

The CNMI sluggers will be competing for the baseball gold medal against the host New Caledonia, Palau, Guam, Fiji, and American Samoa. The six participating teams will play in a round-robin competition with only the Top 4 teams advancing to the playoffs.

The CNMI will debut in the Pacific Games against Palau on Aug. 30 and then will play New Caledonia, Guam, American Samoa, and Fiji.

Against Palau, the CNMI bets will be eyeing for vengeance, as they lost to them in the gold medal match in last year’s Micronesian Games in Koror.

This is the first time in the last four editions of the Pacific Games that the CNMI is fielding a team in the baseball event and the Commonwealth is aiming to continue Micronesia’s domination at the ballfield and join previous winners Palau and Guam.

Palau is the defending champion in the Games, as it beat New Caledonia in 2007 when Apia, Samoa hosted the competition. American Samoa took the bronze in the 2007 edition of the Games. Guam won back-to-back titles, as it reigned supreme in the baseball competition in the Pacific Games in 2003 in Fiji and in 1999 when it hosted the Games. Guam, which did not send a team in the 2007 Pacific Games, also took the gold medal in the Mini Games in Palau in 2005.

Guam lost to the CNMI in the 2006 Micronesian Games and also bowed to the Commonwealth in the semifinals of the Micro Games in Palau last year.

Majority of the CNMI sluggers who competed in Palau are playing again in New Caledonia, so chemistry will be the Commonwealth’s main advantage in this year’s Games. Returning for another tour of duty with the CNMI are Cepeda, Santos, Iguel, Omar, Flores, Maratita, Jones, Lizama, Sablan, and Joab.

Expecting to join the CNMI sluggers in New Caledonia later this week are beach volleyball’s Tyce Mister and Chris Nelson, athletics’ Trevor Ogumoro, Douglas Dillay, and Rachel Abrams, and golf’s Jess Wabol, Adam Hardwicke, Tony Satur, and Jeff Taylor. Leading the CNMI delegates is NMASA president Michael White.