No Zone, CHC wallop opponents

Team No Zone and CHC took turn beating up on their opponents Thursday night, as they earned convincing ten run victories in the continuation of the Saipan Softball Association action at the Oleai Sports Complex.

Team DCCA finished out the season on the losing end of a 30-20 slugfest with Team No Zone. No Zone finished advanced their record to a perfect 14-0 record as they handed the DCCA team (13-1) their first.

CHC took the juice away from CUC as they bolted to an early leaden route to their 25-6 win. With the win, CHC is in the playoffs, making it to the top eight, while CUC might need to check into the CHC for a post-beating check-up.

Team No Zone came to the park prepared, handing announcer and scorekeeper Ray Palacios their computer-generated line-up. On the other side of the field, DCCA was still wondering whom to put where at game time.

The Zone showed the same confidence at the plate, leading off with 13 runs off of 12 hits in the first inning. Everyone crossed the plate for the zone in the top of an inning that featured six homeruns.

It was a blowout in the making, but someone forgot to tell DCCA. The D’s answered back in the bottom half of the first by launching their own 11 run salvo. Only SML standout Francis George failed to cross the plate as they hit three homers off of nine hits.

Steam was rising from the field after both of the explosive offenses were through with the first. Barely after the smoke cleared, the Zones scorched the D’s for 11 more in the second. Just like the first inning, hitter after hitter came across the plate, as Zone batters recorded eight more hits and three dingers, two by Joey Dela Cruz and grand salami by John Diaz.

An inning and a half were in the can, and the score was 24-11 in favor of Team No Zone.

Mel Sakisat led off the bottom of the second with a double, and it looked like the start of yet another comeback. That’s about the time that somebody remembered to tell DCCA that this was going to be a blowout. Boom, boom, boom and Team DCCA was back out onto the field, trailing by 13 runs.

No Zone cooled off a bit and added another tally in the third, while the D’s went down 1-2-3. The game picked up again in the fourth as both teams combined for seven runs and four homers, but the game was all over but the screaming.

Despite a furious six run rally in the bottom of the fifth, DCCA was unable to overcome the monster deficit, and the game ended via the 10 run mercy rule.

Player of the game honors go to two players: Manny Sablan of Team No Zone who hit 3-for-5 with three home runs, and Joey Dela Cruz of DCCA. Dela Crankin’ hit 3-for-4 and also hit three homers in a losing effort.

In the late game, the zappers and the stitches got together when ballers from CUC and CHC took the field. This could have been a close game, but team CHC was allowed to bat in the bottom of the first inning. CHC showed no TLC to the ball, hitting it 16 times in the first for 15 runs, including a Tim Diaz homerun. With the score adding up, and his team spending more and more time in the field, the Team CUC manager showed his frustration, shouting “Come on guys, I don’t want to be out here all day!”

The action got underway when CUC started the game at the plate, jumping out to an early four run lead. Bruce Norita picked up three RBI’s when he homered, brining Tony Guerrero and Oscar Sablan home. Felling confident in their defense, the power brokers took to the field.

They thought that they had scheduled a blackout for the hospital’s batters, but CHC brought their own back-up generator, lighting up the scoreboard for 15 runs. Every doctor, nurse and patient on the CHC crossed the plate in the first, and most did it twice.

Ahead by nine runs, the C’s had put on a hitting clinic for the pole climbers, and all they needed to do was to play a solid game and the contest would be in the bag.

They started by blanking the Volts in the second and again in the third. CUC managed to score two in the fourth when Norita and Sablan crossed the plate. The only problem there was that CHC had already tacked on another five by that time on the strength of six hits and another Tom Diaz Homer.

There were more problems detected in the CUC power grid in the fourth inning, as CHC piled on five runs on five hits, including a John Diaz homer run. Going into the fifth inning, the CUC squad needed to score 10 runs to keep the game alive. That didn’t happen, and everyone went home early, thanks to the 10 run mercy rule.

The not-so official player of the game goes to Tom Diaz, reaching base successfully in each of his four attempts, scoring four times and hitting two homers.