Bears rally in Game 3, finish off Aces

The Chalan Kanoa Bears’ Jerome Delos Santos waits for the pitch during the top of the fourth inning of Game 2 of their title series against the BSI Aces in the 2016 Saipan Baseball League last Monday night at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Chalan Kanoa Bears capped their domination in the 2016 Saipan Baseball League with a 5-4 win against the BSI Aces in Game 3 of their title series last Tuesday night at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield.

Marvin Kaipat ended the best-of-five finals duel and gave the Bears the sweep after hitting the game-winning hit. He blasted a single to the deep leftfield to bring Peyton Lizama home at the bottom of the ninth inning.

Peyton led off for the Bears in the last inning and was hit by a pitch. Jose Lizama was next at bat and BSI Aces pitcher Mike Iguel walked him. Peyton and Jose went on to move to third and second, respectively, while third batter Kiku Lizama grounded out at first. Marvin then stepped onto the plate—his fifth at bat—and after flying out in his previous attempt, the leftfielder this time was on target, making contact with the ball on Iguel’s first pitch to bring Peyton home for the winning run.

The series-clinching Game 3 victory was a come-from-behind one for the Bears, who once stared a 1-4 deficit after four complete innings.

The BSI Aces, who were in a must-win situation after the Bears won Games 1 (4-2), and 2 (4-3), boosted their chances to extend the series after scoring two runs each in the first and third inning and yielding no earned run to their foes in the first four. Jeremy Atalig had a two-run double for the BSI Aces at the top of the first, while his sacrifice fly at rightfield in the third gave his team their fourth run. Lamarc Iguel scored the other run for the BSI Aces at the top of the third as he reached home off the Bears errors.

The Bears, on the other hand, got their first run at the bottom of the opening inning with A.J. Lizama scoring off an error from BSI Aces catcher Virgil Secharmidal. The Bears then went silent in the next three innings with Mike Iguel allowing only one hit after giving up three in the first to help the BSI Aces take the early lead in Game 3.

However, the BSI Aces’ advantage was sliced to one, 3-4, thanks to A.J. Lizama’s two-run single at the bottom of the fifth. The Bears eventually tied the match in the seventh as Jose Lizama stole home while the BSI Aces were busy chasing Kiku Lizama in a run-down to second instead of preventing Jose from scoring.

After the defensive meltdown, the BSI Aces’ offense also suffered in the last two innings, allowing the Bears to steal the victory. Actually, the Aces struggled at the plate from the fourth to the last inning against the Bears three pitchers and the rest of the pennant champions’ defense.

Starting pitcher Peyton Lizama, who gave up three earned runs and three hits in the first three innings, yielded only one hit in the last 1.4 innings he pitched, walked two, and struck out one. Kiku Lizama relieved Peyton and the former fanned out two batters with his second strikeout helping the Bears force the BSI Aces to a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth.

A.J. closed out for the Bears and had no problems at the start of his shift as the BSI Aces had another 1-2-3 inning. He gave up a single to Manny Salas to kick off the eighth inning, but the latter was left stranded at first, as the next three BSI Aces batter flied out. Kiku, who moved to shortstop, and Henry Lizama caught the first two flies, while A.J. got the last. The Bears closer then made two more stops at the top of the ninth to move the his team closer to the finals sweep after fanning out BSI Aces leadoff batter Virgil Secharmidal and picking up a short shot from Ben Jones and throwing to first baseman Kenny Kaipat for the last out. The Bears got the second out earlier off a 6-3 putout play on Lamarc.

A.J., Kiku, and Peyton threw a three-hitter from the fourth to the ninth inning to shut down the BSI Aces. With the trio working the mound, the BSI Aces made it to as far as third base only once with Salas advancing off a wild pitch from Peyton, but was stranded along with Angel Falig (at first base) when Kiku came and struck out Luis Iguel for the third out in the fifth inning.

Meanwhile, the Bears’ sweep in the best-of-five finals was their second perfect mark as they were also undefeated in 14 games in the double-round robin regular season. Overall, the pennant and league champions played 20 games and lost only match (to Titanium in Game 2 of their best-of-three semis series).