Bears beat Falcons, keep perfect record in 1st round

The Chalan Kanoa Bears kept their unbeaten record in the first round of the 2016 Saipan Baseball League following an 11-8 victory over the Falcons last Monday at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield.

The Bears now hold a 7-0 record to stay on top of the eight-team field, while the Falcons dropped to a 4-3 mark for share of third place with Titanium. The defending champions GSM Brewers are in second place with their 6-1 mark, while the Aces (3-4), Yankees (2-5), North Starz (2-5), and Blue Jays (0-7) complete the standings.

The Falcons threatened to hand the Bears their first loss of the season after taking a 7-3 lead in the first six innings of the match. However, the Bears foiled the Falcons’ bid with a seven-run top of the seventh and then held the latter to one run in the last three innings to steal the victory.

Franklin Lizama, Henry Lizama, A.J. Lizama, Angel Palacios, and Jerome Delos Santos had RBI singles in the Bears’ seventh-inning rally with the latter adding a run off a wild pitch. The Bears got on more run off the Falcons error to grab the upper hand, 10-7, and made it an 11-7 advantage with Palacios hitting another RBI single at the top of the ninth.

At the bottom of the ninth, the Falcons remained in contention when leadoff batter Ricky Joe Riungel scored off Giovanni Mira’s single with only one out. However, the Bears regrouped on the defensive end quickly with a double play on Mira and J.J. Lifoifoi.

Meanwhile, Titanium got its fourth win and snapped its three-game losing skid after downing the Yankees, 7-5,

Titanium gained cushion in the fourth and fifth inning, taking a 5-2 lead and hung on tight in the end to hand the Yankees their fifth straight loss.

After going scoreless in the first three innings, an RBI single from Jerald Cabrera put Titanium on the board in the fourth and he also reached off a sacrifice out from Joe Palacios to even up the count, 2-all. Kevin Kapileo had an RBI single and scored off a sacrifice fly from Gary Cruz for the Yankees’s two runs at the top of the third. The Yankees then went without a run in the next three innings, while Titanium got three, giving the latter the upper hand.

Titanium had two runs off wild pitches and one more off the Yankees miscue in the fifth and then countered their foes three runs in the seventh and eighth with an two-RBI double from Manny Cabrera at the bottom of the eighth for the final tally. The scores did not change at the top of the ninth, as the Yankees were called for a 1-2-3 in the last.