Brewers, Yankees keep Top 2 spots

Defending champions Tan Holdings Brewers and 2012 titlists Yankees are still neck and neck after the first round of the 2014 Saipan Baseball League.
The Brewers swept the first five games of the season, following a 14-2 rout of the D’9ers last Wednesday night at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield, while the Yankees finished Round 1 with a 4-1 record after edging the Fielders last Friday, 6-5, and whipping the D’9ers last Monday, 17-3. The D’9ers are winless in the first round, while the Fielders, Tigers, and North Starz hold identical 2-3 records.

The Brewers were consistent with their offense in the first seven innings, while shutting out the D’9ers to set up the easy win. The D’9ers scored only at the bottom of the eighth inning, as they struggled against Brewers pitches Lenny Sablan and Vince Cepeda.

The D’9ers also suffered a beating at the hands of the Yankees this week. The Yankees finished off the hapless D’9ers after only six and a half innings, as the former scored 10 runs in the last two innings to get the early win via 10-run mercy rule. The Yankees capped the lopsided victory with a seven-run bottom of the sixth, getting six earned runs, while their three runs in the fifth were off the D’9ers lapses. The second-running team also had three runs apiece in the second and third inning after making only one in the first for a 7-1 advantage against the D’9ers.

Darren Pua gave the D9’ers their first run in the third inning as he reached home off a Yankees’ errors. However, the cellar dwellers failed to mount a comeback, as they nailed only two runs in the last five innings with Wens Namelo hitting an RBI single in the fifth and J.P. Cabrera scoring off a fielder’s choice.

Meanwhile, in the Yankees-Fielders tiff last weekend, the match went to extra inning before the former thwarted the latter.

Ben Jones drilled the game-winning hit, as his single at the bottom of the 10th inning drove second batter Greg Iskawa. Before Jones’ shot, the Fielders were one down away from sending the game into the second extra inning.

The match was extended after both teams failed to score in the ninth. Before the tie, the Fielders were clinging to a 5-4 lead after six complete innings. The Fielders scored two runs in the third, while the Yankees earned one apiece in the second and third and two in the fourth for a 4-2 advantage before the Fielders grabbed the lead with a three-run top of the sixth. A sacrifice fly from Gary Cruz drove Jones home in the bottom seventh and tied the game anew at 5-all.