Yankees take SML pennant

Jonathan Jones rose to the occasion during Wednesday night’s season-ending Saipan Major League tiebreaker between the Northern Yankees and the Miller Lite Brewers, as the almost automatic reliever performed the role of starter with ease in a 5-3 unseating of the defending champions by holding the opposing batters at bay.

Jones’ star shone the brightest in the biggest match of the season at Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field, as he went the distance for the pinstripers with only three runs scored off of five hits to lead the Yankees to the pennant. All of the Brewers’ tallies were unearned, and Jones fanned nine along the way in the longest game of the season.

By the time that Brewers first baseman Ed Kapileo grounded to second for the final out of the game, the players had been on the field for a little over four hours. More surprising than the length of the game was the absence of the Brew crew’s big hitters.

Some of the SML’s top hitters were stymied in the showdown, as Tony Celis, Manny Sablan, and Jess Mesa were a combined 0-for-12 at the plate, and the Brewers as a team went 5-for-36, with five players failing to log a hit.

While Jones got the win in the contest, Jonathan Camacho pitched a quality game on the mound for Miller Lite, as the SML’s most used pitcher threw six innings of two-run five-hit baseball in which he fanned five batters, and left the hill with a tie.

Frank Hocog took the ball in the top of the seventh inning and closed out the Yankees one-two-three, but he led off the top of the eighth by beaning Yankees outfielder Clifton Silil, which later setup a two-run single by Mel Sakisat that gave the pinstripers the lead for good. By the time he got out of the eighth, Hocog allowed three runs off of two hits. Rather than continue his effort in the top of the ninth, Hocog was pulled by acting manager Roque Celis in favor of Byron Kaipat.

Kaipat gave up a double to right fielder Ben Jones, but got out of the jam when his fielders pulled off a 6-3-5 double play.

The Yankees closed out the regular season with a record of 11-2, and will have plenty of time to relish the victory as the SML playoffs will resume following the return of the CNMI’s finest athletes from the 2005 South Pacific Mini Games in Palau.