Saipan Senior All-Stars also going to Regionals

The Saipan Senior All-Stars bludgeoned Rota, 17-1, in the championship of the 2008 CNMI Senior District Tournament held last Saturday at the old ballpark in Songsong Village.

A day after Friday the 13th, Saipan’s batters pummeled Rota starting pitcher Chris Joe Castro with 13 runs on hits aplenty in the bottom of the first inning.

Saipan had such a field day against Castro that the score was already 7-0 when Eric Tenorio was tagged out at third.

It took another four home plate crossings before Rota had its second out when Nokki Saralu went down on a fielder’s choice.

The hosts finally got out of the inning when starting pitcher Anthony Tenorio flew out to centerfield.

Giving up the third out notwithstanding, Tenorio was simply a stud for the Saipan Senior All-Stars. He started out by hurling strikeouts to Juan Lizama and Daniel Rangamar before retiring Blaine Mesngon on a come-backer.

Rota scored its lone run on the second inning when Gary Toves Jr. reached home plate on a sacrifice fly by Nature Atalig, but other than that it was lights out for Rota’s batters as Tenorio was simply unhittable in two innings of action.

His replacements also proved as deadly, as Tommy Agulto and Wally Emul Jr. combined for three innings of shutout ball.

To his credit, Castro settled down after the atrocious first inning. The Rota ace came back big time in the second inning by inducing Juan Iguel, John Pangelinan, and Ofero Taitano to a popup and fly outs to leftfield.

And although he gave up a run to Saralu in third, he retired the next three batters capped by striking out Ionis Rasa.

Saipan would knock three more runs in the fourth against Castro before he was finally lifted in favor of Mesngon in the fifth. Down 17-1, Mesngon did his part by striking out Rasa and Dave Camacho and forcing Ryan Lisua to fly out to shortstop.

Now Rota only needed to score eight runs in the bottom of the fifth to avert a 10 run mercy rule-shortened game.

Unfortunately for the hosts, Emul was on target on the plate, delivering three strikes apiece to Atalig and Nuve Manglona before ending the finals and tournament when Juan Lizama flew out to first base.

Tenorio was credited for the win, while Cruz took the loss. Camacho led Saipan with four RBIs, while Iguel and Pangelinan brought home two runners apiece.

With the win, the Saipan Senior All-Stars advance to the 2008 Asia-Pacific Senior Regional Tournament set from June 27 to July 2 at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

The team is managed by Derran Flores with Marvin Tydingco and Ray Celis serving as head coach and assistant coach, respectively.

Other members of the Saipan Senior All-Stars are Joshua Jones, Juan Maratita, John Paul Lizama, Eric Tenorio, and Ben Flores.