Ford Rangers win historic 3-HR game

The Ford Rangers broke its second-place tie with Tanapag Falcons by beating the defending champions on a shootout, 14-8, last Wednesday in the final regular season game of the 2008 Budweiser Saipan Major League.

The Rangers-Falcons duel was quite historic, according to SML coordinator Tony Rogolifoi, as it marked the first time in league history that three homeruns were recorded at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

Rangers catcher Robert Bansil started the fireworks, hitting a homerun off starting pitcher Henry Reyes to give his team a 2-0 lead after also bringing home Mario Sablan.

Falcons continued to trail the Joeten Motors-sponsored team until the third inning when Ned Norita brought home brother Bruce and Dustin Quitano, while J.R. Suel reached on an error to give Tanapag a 3-2 advantage.

Pete Tomokane then equalized the count on an RBI single in the third. He would later come up big in the bottom of the fifth when the Rangers shortstop connected on a grand slam off Reyes to give his team a 7-3 advantage.

Rangers tucked in two more runs against Reyes’ replacement, Jess Taitano, to increase their lead to 9-3.

Kelvin Kapileo continued to dominate Tanapag batters in the next two innings, while his batters continued to pile up the runs with two more in the sixth, as Rangers blew the game wide open, leading 11-3 heading into the top of the eighth.

Facing a 10-run mercy rule shortened evening, the Falcons literally stepped up to the plate, but none bigger than Mike Pangelinan who answered homers by Bansil and Tomakane with an around-the-bases hit of his own that drove in Ned Norita.

It was the second straight game that Pangelinan homered for the Falcons and allowed him to tie Rangers’ Benwachi Taisakan for the homerun lead.

Their lead cut to 11-5, Rangers answered Pangelinan’s threat with three more home plate crossings in the bottom of the eighth to make it 14-5.

Tanapag’s rally in the ninth came six runs short when Quitano, Pete Teigita, and Norita drove in three runners before Kapileo forced Sid Sablan to fly out to first base for the final out of the evening.

With the final rankings in place, the 2008 BSML will start its semifinals’ best-of-three playoff series on Tuesday, July 22, with pennant champion Rock Steady taking on fourth place D-9ers.

Wednesday, July 23, will have pennant runner-up Ford Rangers again facing the Falcons. Game 2 of each series will be played on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Game 3, if necessary, continues the following week.

Winners advance to the best-of-five championship series.

Last Monday, D9ers advanced to the Final Four after drubbing Korean Dreams, 16-8.

The final 2008 BSML standings has Rock Steady leading the pack with an unblemished 14-0 record, followed by Ford Rangers at 11-4, Tanapag Falcons at 10-5, and San Roque D9ers at 8-6.

Koreans Dreams (7-7), Komoro (4-10), Team Kabur (2-12), and O’Conner Tigers (1-13) all missed the playoffs.