What’s left of Rock Steady, Rangers play Game 5 this morning

With the continuation of the deciding Game 5 of the title series in the 2008 Budweiser Saipan Major League baseball tournament set for this morning, a power outage will not be a problem for the Ford Rangers and Rock Steady.

Manpower shortage will.

The Rangers and Rock Steady will have depleted lineups when they play the most important match in the title series today at 10am.

Several players from both teams did not expect the championship series to be stretched this long, making prior commitments before today’s match. Some are already in Las Vegas, Nevada to compete in the CNMI Labor Day Softball Tournament, while others have personal commitments on-and off-island and could not make it to today’s game.

Mel Sakisat, one of the Rangers pitchers, said they may be left with 11 players come the final game. He said they will be missing catcher Robert Bansil and Clifton Sillil among others when Game 5 resumes today.

Sakisat is hoping that what occurred in Game 2 would not happen in Game 5. The Rangers had to forfeit the continuation of Game 2 as they had only eight players reporting for the match.

Rock Steady coach Joey Dela Cruz in an earlier interview with the Saipan Tribune said, from more than 20 players in the first round of the playoffs, they are down to 12 sluggers.

“We don’t know yet, but we may also have only 11 players when we play Game 5 this Saturday,” Dela Cruz said.

Rock Steady will also play without its catcher Manny Sablan and two more players.

The short best-of-five title showdown seemed endless, as games were suspended due to the rolling power outages. The recent one was Monday night’s Game 5 at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield with the Rangers leading, 2-1, at the of the third inning

Before Game 5 was played, Rock Steady and the Rangers were able to finish the power outage-halted Game 4 with the former winning, 8-4, to tie the series at 2-all, and force a do-or-die match.

Game 4 was first played on Aug. 19, and Rock Steady was leading at the top of the seventh, 8-3, when the power went off. The continuation of Game 4 was scheduled for Aug. 22, but the match was called off due to rain.

The Rangers won Game 1, 15-10, forfeited Game 2, and claimed Game 3, 9-6, to move a win away from clinching the championship. But the Joeten Motors-sponsored squad could not finish the series when Rock Steady recovered in the extended Game 4.

Game 5 was set in the morning to finally wrap up the series, which will end today after 20 days.

The unpredictable power outages are momentum breakers, as neither Rock Steady nor the Rangers was able to win back-to-back games in the series.

At the same time, they were also causing fatigue to players, who took only a few minutes of rest before returning to the ballfield to play a new game.

Setting the continuation of Game 5 for Saturday gave teams four days of break and this rest will be crucial in today’s deciding match, as players from both teams are expected to play extended minutes with the absence of some of their teammates.