Champs, Pirates win openers

The defending champion Hustlers and the Pirates each reached out for relatively easy wins on Sunday as the Saipan Major League Fall edition rolled out the green carpet for players 16 to 25 years old at the Kan Pacific Baseball Field in Marpi.

Ed Manibusan led the way for the Hustlers at the plate in a 12-4 win against the D-9ers with a 3-for-4 outing at the plate that yielded three singles and a pair of runs batted, while teammate Tyrone Omar was 2-for-4 on the day with a pair of base knocks, a run batted in, and a pair of stolen bases.

The duo took a bite out of the D-9ers’ pitching staff, and the Hustlers as a whole scored their 12 runs off of 14 hits—including a six-run sixth in which they had four hits and turned two of their walks into runs.

The D-9ers were still in the game down 6-3 after the bottom of the fifth, but the Hustlers sluggers really took the wind out of their sails with the hits, while the pitchers took care of whatever fight was left.

Jonathan Camacho allowed just three runs off of four hits through six innings for the Hustlers while fanning four and walking two before being relieved by hurler A.J. Allen in the top of the seventh. Allen didn’t allow a hit and fanned four, and three out of the four D-9ers runs reached base on walks, while the other one was on a fielder’s choice in the third.

The D-9ers took the lead in their first at bat when Randy Rabago and Johnty Jones drove in Cadez Tenorio and Ricky Jones, respectively, but the hustlers chipped away at the lead with a run in the bottom of the second and third before scoring a pair in the fourth and fifth to take the 6-3 lead.

PIRATES 11, TANAPAG 0

The game between the Pirates and Tanapag didn’t feature the same “come-from-behind” excitement, as the P-Men made a statement in the bottom of the first when nearly everyone got an at bat as they scored five runs off of four hits.

Not much happened in the second, but the Pirates scored a pair in the third and three in the fourth to take a commanding 10-0 lead. Tanapag couldn’t answer when B.J. Sablan’s sacrifice fly drove in J.P. Sablan in the bottom of the sixth, and the game ended when the umpires invoked the 10-run mercy rule during the seventh-inning stretch.

While the Pirates bats were on fire, their pitchers were throwing it, as starter James Kintol allowed just one hit and fanned four through three innings on the hill before Joshua Dela Cruz came in middle relief to give up a grounder in the fifth. Jonathan Villagomez sealed the deal for the Pirates shutout when he took the ball in the top of the sixth and sent Tanapag packing with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings to close out the game.

In all, the trio allowed no runs off of two hits and fanned five through seven and walked only one.

J.P. Sablan led all hitters with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate that net a pair of singles for the slugger, while Jones went 1-for-three with a single and an RBI.