Eliminators win Slow Pitch championship

After a rollercoaster ride of in the final two games of the postseason, the pennant runner-ups chased away their playoff demons, as the Eliminators swept X-Clusive in their best-of-three series at the Oleai Sports Complex on Wednesday night—but the win didn’t come easy.

Nearly 45 minutes after exposing X-Clusive as an inferior team in the first game, to the tune of a 30-9 whooping, the Eliminators had to rally back from a 15-9 deficit in order to put the finishing touches on what was a successful season in the Island Wide Slow Pitch Softball League on Wednesday night at the Oleai Sports Complex.

The Eliminators could do no wrong in the first game of the series, as they held an 8-6 advantage over X-Clusive after three and a half inning before exploding for 14 runs off of 13 hits in the bottom of the fourth.

Roy Celis, Jerome Delos Santos, Jonathan Delos Santos, Tony Celis, Manny Sablan, and pitcher Henry Palacios all went yard to give the Eliminators a 22-6 lead after four complete.

The hits kept coming in the fifth, when they piled on another six runs, including a grand slam by Jerome Delos Santos.

Unfortunately for X-Clusive, the game was not called via the 10-run mercy rule because it doesn’t apply in the championship format.

By the time the game was over, there was little doubt amongst the fans in the stands that the Eliminators would be crowned slow pitch champions at the end of the night.

Center fielder Roy Celis finished the game 3-for-4 with two singles, a homerun, and three scores, while second baseman Tony Celis went 4-for-4 with two singles, a double, a homerun, three scores, and five runs batted in. First baseman Joe Palacios went a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate with a quintuplet of singles and three scores, but he was not the top Palacios on the Eliminators, as pitcher Henry Palacios proved to be the difference maker by allowing only nine runs in seven innings of play. Palacios also went 3-for-4 at the plate with a three-run homerun and a pair of singles.

The impact that Palacios had on the mound became evident in the second game of the night, as the X-Clusive bats found new life when Frank Ermitanio was at the helm.

On the offensive side, the Eliminators picked up where they left off, as they scored three runs off of five hits in the top of the first inning to get the ball rolling when Celis, Guerrero, and Garcia crossed the plate.

The Eliminators’ lead wasn’t safe, however, as the X-Clusive players were rejuvenated following the break between games, and piled up six runs off of six hits in the bottom half of the inning—including a three-run homerun by left fielder Byron Kaipat.

There was more offense in the second inning, as the Eliminators matched X-Clusive’s six runs to retake the lead, 9-6, on hits from Celis, Guerrero, Garcia, Jonathan Delos Santos, Jack Guerrero, and Ermitanio.

Though it may have been easier for the X-Clusive team to lose their spirit when they surrendered the lead, they rallied to score eight runs off of nine hits to gain the 14-9 advantage.

Kaipat connected with his second hit in the bottom of the second to drive home J.J. Cabrera for his fourth run batted in, while Gus Palacios later brought Kaipat across the plate.

The bats cooled for both teams in the third inning, but while the Eliminators failed to score, X-Clusive squeezed out a run when Kaipat crossed the plate for the third time in the game on a fielder’s choice.

The aluminum beating sticks caught fire again in the top of the fourth inning, as the Eliminators scored five runs off of six hits to climb back into the game by narrowing the gap to a 15-14 score.

Celis and Guerrero scored for the their third time of the game, and third baseman Manny Sablan cranked a solo shot to right field to get his boys fired up. It was the Eliminators turn to blank X-Clusive when they took the field in the bottom half of the inning, as they sent them packing after they recorded one hit in five attempts.

Both teams were blanked again in the fifth inning, but the Eliminators tied the game in the top of the sixth inning when Jonathan Delos Santos crossed the plate off of a Manny Sablan sacrifice fly to right field, and took the lead when Elias Saralu drove on Tony Celis to make the score 16-15.

Were it not for a fielding error by the Eliminators, X-Clusive may have exited the bottom of the sixth inning with three-up, three-down. As it was, X-Clusive got four batters top the plate that failed to yield a run.

With one run separating the teams heading into the seventh inning, Jeff Cabrera got on base with a hit, followed by another base knock by Henry Palacios.

That set the stage for back-to-back homeruns from Roy Celis and Bob Guerrero. Celis smacked a three-run shot over the left field fence, while Guerrero sent his first class to the Sun Palace Hotel.

The hits kept coming for the Eliminators, as they racked up five runs off of six hits to give them the 21-15 edge going into the final three outs of the game.

J.J. Cabrera led off the X-Clusive at bat with a ground out to third baseman Sablan, followed by a pop out by Dane Lizama to left field. Kaipat came up with a clutch double, and John Acosta knocked him home. That was as far as they would go, as John Cepeda grounded to first to end the game and the season.