DCCA picks up 18th win against DLNR

Department of Community and Cultural Affairs players hit five homeruns en route to a 16-6 win against Department of Land and Natural Resources Wednesday night in the 2008-2009 Budweiser Inter-Government Business Slow-pitch Softball League at the Capital Hill Ballfield.

Julian Camacho and Joey Dela Cruz homered twice, while pitcher Mel Sakisat had one as DCCA picked up its 18th win and moved within a win of sweeping the regular season.

DCCA virtually took the pennant as early as two weeks ago.

The only team left standing in its way is Pacific Islands Club with their game set March 19.

But more importantly, DCCA nailed an outright entry for the playoff round along with five other teams.

Joining the march to the next round are Docomo (14-4), Freedom Air (13-3), Beach Boys (13-3), Commonwealth Ports Authority (12-4), and Joeten Motor Jets (12-5).

No Zone (11-5) and Legislature (11-7) need to win one more game to assure themselves a playoff spot.

DLNR is now out of the playoffs with its 6-12 record.

Commonwealth Utilities Corp. improved its record to 5-11 by blanking cellar dweller Hopwood, 10-0.

But CUC has a bleak prospect for the playoffs as it needs to win all of its three remaining games to advance to the postseason.

Last night’s games will be critical for all the teams in the bottom half of the 20-team field, including CUC.

Hopwood became the first team to virtually drop out from the playoffs with its 0-16 record.

Mitch Aaron hit the season’s first grand slam, Fonze Tarope scored two homeruns, and Dave Apatang added another homer to lead Legislature to a 20-5 victory over POI Aviation.

Legislature rallied from a 1-3 deficit by scoring five runs in the top of sixth for a 6-1 lead.

POI made two runs, including homeruns from William Sablan and Highness Asanuma, to move to within 5-6, after six full innings before Legislature exploded with 14 runs in the top of seventh for its 11th win in seven outings.

On Thursday night, Docomo played solid defense to hammer out an abbreviated 16-2 triumph against Commonwealth Health Center, which is now on the brink of elimination with its 5-11 record.

Docomo, which needed just five full innings to prevail, grabbed solo second with a 14-4 mark and could afford to lose its last two games without being bumped from the playoffs.

The Beach Boys rallied from a 2-6 deficit after three and a half innings before coming home with an 8-7 win over CRM/DEQ.

Jr. Suel, Harlan Reyes, Ray Blas, Oliver Schermidal, and Jun Salalilia reached home plate in succession in the bottom fourth to seize the lead, 7-6.

Pitcher Steve Igisaiar then scored on a double by Suel in the bottom sixth to make it 8-6.

CRM/DEQ threatened a comeback as a Larry Sugiyama triple sent Jacob Lizama to home plate.

But that was the final run of the game as Igisaiar grounded out the last batter of the game, Ed Manibusan. The Beach Boys thus notched its 13th win against three losses and dealt CRM/DEQ its seventh defeat in 16 matches.