Eliminators cruise while Flyers are downed

Two of the top teams in the Saipan Softball Association saw action on Monday night, but the Eliminators and the Master Construction Flyers traveled down two different paths in the Men’s Island Wide Slow Pitch Softball League.

The Eliminators continued on the road toward the pennant by picking up their ninth win of the season with a 36-14 beat down of the Bud Light Chura (8-3) to inch ever closer to the first place Flyers at the Oleai Sports Complex. The Master Construction crew had an opportunity to extend their undefeated streak to 11 games, but fell to 10-1 when they found themselves on the losing side of a 26-15 beating from X-Clusive (8-4).

The Eliminators went into the top of the third inning with a 5-1 lead before unleashing a world of hurt upon the unsuspecting Chura in the form of a 22-run explosion. Right fielder Elias Saralu got the lava flowing when he uncorked a grand slam homerun to make the score 9-1. The Eliminators didn’t stop there, as they racked up a total of five homers and 17 hits in the inning.

After getting out of the top of the inning, Chura found themselves in a 27-1 hole, but they didn’t call it quits. Chura rallied for seven runs in the bottom of the inning to reel the Eliminators in a bit, before surrendering another nine runs over the next two innings.

Saralu finished the night with an impressive 4-for-4 performance at the plate with a pair of homers, a single, a double, five scores and seven runs batted in. Teammate Manny Sablan had a solid night, going 4-for-5 at the plate with two homers, two singles and four scores, while Jerome Delos Santos was 3-for-5 with a single, a double, a dinger, four ribbies and three scores.

The Flyers wish they could have their game with X-Clusive back, as they let a 12-5 lead begin to slip through their fingers in the fifth inning before it was snatched away from them in the sixth.

X-Clusive took control of the game when Byron Kaipat crossed the plate in the top of the sixth, and they never looked back. They added all of the insurance that they would need in the top of the seventh when they scored 10 runs off of 10 hits including three homers.

Kaipat went 4-for-5 on the night with two doubles, a triple, and a two-run shot in the seventh to finish with six ribbies and three scores. Teammate John Camacho was perfect at the plate, going 5-for-5 with four base knocks and a dinger. Camacho racked up three runs batted in and three scores on the night as well.

While X-Clusive will not be able to finish the season in first place, they have added a little excitement to the remaining games of the season by knocking off the Flyers. The Flyers can still take the pennant if they win out in their final game of the season, but they will have to do so against a surging Eliminators team next Monday, Dec. 6, 6:30pm.