Youthful Pirates on a mission to regain SML title

After a 15-inning marathon in the season opener of the fall edition of the Saipan Major League, the Pirates finally knocked off the defending champion Hustlers at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field, and if Pirates team captain Joey Dela Cruz has anything to say about it, the trend will continue all year long.

“I’m very confident that we can bring both the pennant and the championship back to the Pirates this year,” he said.

Last year, the Hustlers broke the Pirates’ four-year streak of winning the pennant and the championship, and Dela Cruz said he believes his squad can continue their success in the future with the changes they made this year.

“One thing that we’ve done differently this year is bringing younger players in. We decided that we can develop their skills for years to come, and if we train them now, we can gel as a team in the future.”

Twenty-year-old J.J. Taitano is one of the new members of the team, but he spent the majority of last season riding the pine with the Hustlers. Although his team won both the pennant and the championship, he made the switch to the Pirates in the off-season after speaking with Dela Cruz.

“I moved over to the Pirates because I like the practices. Before there would only be like four players, but whenever I practice with the Pirates they are always complete and well organized,” said Taitano.

Taitano went from sitting the bench with the defending champs to starting for the hungry young Pirates. According to Dela Cruz, the team is so young that roughly half of the players have eight years of eligibility remaining in the amateur league.

The team captain also explained that his team had some difficulty getting used to the newly implemented wooden bats, but that given some time they would get the hang of it. Dela Cruz continued that, in the meantime, his pitchers will have to pick up the slack.

“We have a very good pitching staff, and through the first couple of games we are going to feel them out and see what they can do for us.”

Jonathan Jones is one of those pitchers, and he picked up his first win of the season after relieving J.P. Flores to get the final out in the fifth inning against the Hustlers. When Flores started to tire, Jones finished the job by striking out 12, and giving up six hits in 10 1/3 innings.

“Jonathan was feeling good. He wasn’t tired and he still had his stuff, so we left him in there for the next 11 innings and he did it for us,” said Dela Cruz.

The winning runs came in off of the stick of Brandon Concepcion when he doubled in Daryl Ada and John Tudela in the top of the 15th. Concepcion would later score the third run when Dwight Quitano doubled him in, but according to Dela Cruz the game could’ve easily finished the other way in the 11th inning.

“[The game] was a masterpiece. It was just a matter of who made the first mistake.”

With a tie score, one out, and Hustler J.R. Suel on second base, Manny Sablan cranked a base hit to right field. Outfielder John Tudela grabbed the ball and threw it home as the third base coach signaled Suel home. First baseman Taitano cut off the throw, relayed it to catcher Daryl Ada at the plate, and Suel was called out while sliding to home plate.

“They made the mistake of giving Suel the go ahead sign to score in the bottom of the 11th. With him on third, and only one out, all that they had to do was get a base hit, or maybe a good bunt and it would have been over. That just killed their spark, and they gave up the win,” said Dela Cruz.

After the game reached the 13th inning, league coordinator Tony Rogolifoi called both team managers to home plate where he advised them that if there was no score by the end of the 15th inning the game would be continued on another date.

The decision caused a minor stir amongst the players, but that may have provided the needed spark to the Pirates, as one of the winning runs that crossed the plate, 18-year-old Ada, explained his feelings at the prospect of pausing the game in favor of a continuance,

“It made me mad because I’d been out in the sun, and they wanted to stop the game. I was like ‘It cannot be.’ We have to play until somebody wins.”