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NMI finishes 3rd in MBC
CNMI Team players and officials pose for a photo at the departure area of the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport last week before they head to Guam for the Micronesian Baseball Classic. (Contributed Photo)
The CNMI bets failed to defend their Micronesian Baseball Classic title and settled for third place at the conclusion of the weeklong competition won by host Guam yesterday at the Paseo Stadium in Agana.
Team CNMI ended its campaign with a 6-4 loss to the hosts in their semifinal match with the winner advancing to the championship match against Palau. Palau took the first finals berth after a 6-5 decision, while the CNMI earned the right to face Guam in the semis following a 6-5 victory over Kosrae in the page system format.
Guam, buoyed by the hometown crowd in the finals, went on a late scoring rampage for an 11-1 thrashing of Palau to win the second edition of the regional tournament.
Team CNMI, after a narrow 3-2 win over Kosrae, lost to Guam’s Under 23 squad in a no-bearing match then suffered a 3-2 setback to Palau in the single elimination round.
Guam’s other wins were against Kosrae, 15-4, its U23 team, 3-2, and Palau, 14-1, in the elimination.
Team CNMI started the tournament with a 3-2 win over Kosrae, courtesy of a walk-off hit by Anthony Tenorio—a grounder to left field—allowing A.J. Evangelista to sprint toward home plate and score the winning run.
Kosrae committed nine errors in their match against the CNMI, while the latter had only one to pull off the close win. Team CNMI was the defending champion of the inaugural event after recording a 15-14 come-from-behind win over Guam in last year’s competition on Saipan.
Brian Camacho, Angel Palacios, Jobe Reyes, Ian Norita, Peter Tomokane, Virgil Secharmidal, Franco Nakamura, Henry Lizama Jr., Ricardo Dela Cruz, Barry Sunumai, Jerald Cabrera, Manny Cabrera, Joe Palacios, Nathan Camacho, Jhace Palacios, Lorenzo Sebaklim, J.J. Lifoifoi, L.J. Sebaklim, and Ethan Babauta were the members of this year’s Team CNMI.
The Commonwealth players return to Saipan today and majority of them will suit up for teams playing in Saipan Baseball League’s Masters and U23 divisions, which was momentarily stopped to give way to MBC.
