All-Stars get pat on the back from Babauta

The Junior and Senior League teams presented the trophies and banners earned last week in the Asia/Pacific Regional Baseball Tournament to Gov. Juan M. Babauta yesterday morning at his office, and they found themselves the recipients of gifts as well.

The governor expressed his sense of pride and congratulated the baseball players for the way they conducted themselves as well as the result of their contests in Guam.

The players, coaches, managers, parents, and volunteers were lauded for all of their hard work and dedication throughout the regular season and now are headed to the mainland.

The Junior League All-Stars will be going to Taylor, Michigan to face the top teams in the International Pool, while the Senior League team will be traveling a bit further to Bangor, Maine.

After pulling out amazing victories over the competition, Junior All-Stars manager Sonny Flores shared some of the philosophy that brought home the banner.

“Practice hard and never say die. Even though you’re behind, you’ve got to have intensity toward the end of the inning. Just don’t flat out and die because you’re behind. Keep on fighting.”

Flores said that his team will be facing the best of the world when his squad of stars take the field with Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Europe, and Canada.

The goal for his team is to win it all, but he believes that the Juniors still have some work to do if they are going to achieve it.

“We just need to practice harder now, correct our mistakes. We need to improve our batting. Our pitching is alright, but batting is definitely something that we need to work on. I think that if we practice hard and set our minds to it, we can make a big impact. [The CNMI Junior team winning the World Series] has never been done before, but now that’s our goal. You know as you drive to the stadium, all of the street signs have the names of the winners from the previous years. I want to see our names on there. That’s our goal.”

Senior All-Stars manager Jess Wabol shares the same set of goals for his boys in Maine. Wabol explained what he did to rally the troops to come from behind to seize victory in Guam.

“I told them that it’s never over until the final out of the sixth inning. As long as you’re still playing, you’ve got to take care of business. You just can’t quit. And I told them that if they are going to accept anything less than first, then they have got to find something else to do because they don’t belong in baseball. All they think about in baseball is who is the champion. They don’t care who is the runner-up. That message got across to the kids. I told them, there are some of you that have worked from September of last year for the regular season; it’s not over yet. In fact, before we left for Guam I told them that Bangor, Maine is waiting for you guys. So, now we’re heading for Maine.

Wabol added that without the help of the parents, volunteers, the governor, DCCA secretary Juan L. Babauta, Rick Kautz, Brian Ser Nicolas, and Gilbert Saluduez, that the trip would not have been possible.

“These people had an impact on the funding, so we would like to take a time out to recognize them for supporting the kids during the Asia/Pacific Tournament, and we will continue to represent them well.”

The governor also mentioned the outstanding showing put forth by the Big Leaguers, thanking them for their valiant efforts in the south.

“I just want to say that the Big League, although we lost the game in Guam last week, don’t feel so bad because we have won four times in the past and that sometimes you can’t have it all but we certainly are very proud of you for winning four times in the past. In fact three consecutive times in previous years. We’re very proud of you and I want you to know that this should not be disheartening and I want to congratulate the Big League for an outstanding performance.”