Bears’ Attao is new batting leader

The Papa Bears might be in the lower rung of the standings but that did not stop Jojo Attao to become the new batting leader of the 2017 Belau Masters Men’s Softball League.

Attao was second to Bill Camacho of the league leading Brotherhood a few weeks ago, but after last Sunday’s games at the Dandan Softball Field had registered a .786 average built around 22 hits on 28 at bats.

He was also one of five players with the most RBIs finishing at joint fourth in the department with Kuich Damian with 22 each.

Camacho dropped to joint second with Ron Olopai of Momma Charo with both batters having averages of .714 followed by the Brotherhood’s quintet of Joe Lizama (.689), John Terlaje (.649), Julian Camacho (.625), and the .606 each of Jerry Ayuyu and Jack D. Diaz.

Jude Dickinson of the S. A. Masters is in ninth place with .600, while Taylor Germance of Karui had a .583 to round up the top 10 batting leaders that was based on 25 or more times at bat.

Germance led the individual leaders as he figured prominently in three of the five categories, while teammates Ayuyu and Camacho logged their names twice.

Germance joined Bill Aguon and Lefty Shiro with 21 runs scored each that was topped by Brotherhood’s Lizama (27) with Camacho not far behind with 25.

He is the current home run king with 11 followed by the eight each of Ayuyu, Dominic Remeliik, and Payton Sakuma of Momma Charu.

Germance again found himself on top of the RBI department with 35, while Ayuyu was second with 26 and Karui’s Steve Igisaiar third with 23.

Camacho and Nizer Masayos of Momma Charu had the most triples with five apiece followed by the four of Asahi’s Tosh Beltran, and the three each of Chris Harumi and Dominic Hideo.

Lefty Shiro led the doubles department with eight while Phil Celis and Tito Laniyo had seven and six, respectively. George David and Jack Guerrero whacked five each in the same department.

Leo Bobai of Momma Charu remains the pitching leader with a 5.65 ERA where he gave up 46 earned runs on 130 hits in the 57 innings he pitched in 10 of the 11 games that he started. He also has an 8-2 won-loss record.

The Papa Bears’ Joe Celis came in second (6.09) followed by the Brotherhood’s John Diaz (6.51), and Peleliu teammates Rush Kintaro (7.00) and Ray Villagomez (7.32).

The S.A. Masters pair of John Cepeda and Mike Sablan are in sixth to seventh places with 8.12 and 8.25 ERAs, while Beltran (8.60), Sufa’s Tom Camacho (8.75), and Lucian George of Karui (8.88) completed the Top 10 pitching leaders.

Diaz leads Bobai and Tom Camacho by one, 22-21, with the most strikeouts with Leo Iskawa (20), Cepeda (16), and Igisaiar (15) the other pitchers in the department.

Brotherhood remains on top of the standings with an 11-1 record followed by Pelelliu’s 10-1 slate and the 8-1 card of Momma Charu, which handed the league leaders its first loss of the season. Karui (6-5) and the S.A. Masters (6-6) complete the top five.

Asahi (4-7), Sufa (4-8), Papa Bears (2-9), and the still winless Red Torch (0-12) are in the lower half of the standings.