Braves barge into Senior League finals

A Braves lefty batter waits for the pitch from the Red Sox during their playoff game in the Senior League division of the 2014 Saipan Little League Baseball last Saturday at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield. (ROSELYN B. MONROYO)

A.J. Evangelista pitched the Braves to the finals-berth clinching win. He pitched a complete game and allowed only five hits and one earned run, while the rest of his teammates also stepped up on defense, hustling for 10 fly balls.

On offense, the Braves, who lost to the Fielders in last year’s finals, 4-8, scored in five innings to earn a return trip to the finals. A sacrifice out from Ian Norita drove Evangelista home at the top of the first inning and the Braves went up, 2-0, behind M.J. Sakisat’s RBI single in the second inning.

Evangelista and the Braves kept the Red Sox from scoring in the first three innings before the latter broke the ice at the bottom fourth off Jhace Palacios’ RBI single. Earlier at the top of the fourth, the Braves had another sacrifice out, while Roke Tenorio reached home off an error, giving the Braves a 4-1 advantage.

The eventual finalists went on to bag one run apiece in the fifth and sixth inning for more cushion, while the Red Sox were shut out in the last three innings and made it to scoring position only one to miss its first attempt to enter the finals.

The Red Sox, who was seeded first in the finals and won the division pennant, will try to march into the title match anew when they face the Jets this weekend. The fourth-ranked Jets kept their finals bid alive after eliminating the JPO Enforcers, 5-4, in last Sunday’s playoff tiff.

The Jets scored four runs in the pivotal seventh inning to nose out the Enforcers. Behind by one, 1-2, after six complete innings, T.J. Dela Cruz hit an RBI double to tie the game, while Jess Brel broke the tie with his two-RBI triple, and the latter also reached off a sacrifice out for their 5-2 advantage.

The Enforcers’ first two batters made it home of the Jets errors to slice the deficit to one with one out and a runner at third base, but the Jets got back-to-back putout plays to end match and secure a playoff berth for the last finals ticket against the Red Sox.

Also staying alive for a finals seat in the Junior League were the Comets, who crushed the Fielders in a playoff match last Sunday, 10-1.

Austin Hocog pitched in 6.2 innings and struck out seven runners to lift the Comets to victory. He only allowed two hits and one earned run.

The Fielders scored their lone run at the top of the second inning, but still faced a 1-4 deficit, as the Comets hit their target in the opening inning. The Comets got three earned runs and stole home at the top of the first to take the early lead. They then went cold in the next three innings, but made up for their silence in the fifth, collecting six runs for the easy win.

With the victory, the Comets will take on the Falcons for the right to duel the JPO Enforcers in the Junior League Finals. The Enforcers advanced to the title game first, following a 2-1 triumph over the Falcons last Saturday.