Close battles in batting races

A Comets batter waits for a pitch from the Ol’Aces during their Majors division game in the 2017 Saipan Little League Baseball last month at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Basa Pangelinan Ballfield. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

No leads are safe in the batting races in the Majors and Junior League divisions of the 2017 Saipan Little League Baseball.

The Little Legals’ Gunner Sablan is on top of the batting charts (updated statistics as of April 2) with his average of .625, but not far behind are McDonald’s Lushawn Reyes (.620) and the former’s teammate Delbert Sablan (.607). Sablan has the best average so far among the 20 leaders after going 15-for-24, while Reyes and Delbert went 18-for-29 and 17-for-28, respectively.

Two other players are also still in the hunt for the top honors in the batting contest as the Little Legals’ Kaipo Dikito and the Braves’ Joel Borja have similar averages of .500. Dikito hit 14-for-28, while Borja was 9-for-18 at bat.

Rounding out the Top 20, which was based on 18 or more times at bat) were McDonald’s Joseph Ada (.462), Bank of Saipan’s Jequinn Lizama (.450), the Braves’ Patrick Celis (.450), Pirates 2’s Easton Dela Cruz (.444), Bank of Saipan’s Anton Aguon (.434), McDonald’s Joel Deleon Guerrero (.428), the Falcons’ Keoni Serrano (.423), Pirates 2’s Ryder Alvarez (.421), Pirates 2’s Jeremiah Suel III (.421), the Braves’ taisei Desebel (.409), the Little Legals’ Lucio Aldan (.407), Bank of Saipan’s Isidro Lizama (.400), the Braves’ Heath Camacho (.391), Pirates 2’s Deondrey Cruz (.388), and Pirates 1’s Kazu Dela Cruz (.388).

There were no games in the Majors division last week and action at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Basa Pangelinan Ballfield will resume this Saturday with players in the Top 20 needing to perform better as the league is past its halfway mark. The 10 teams in the division will play 12 games in the regular season and majority of them had already completed at least eight games each.

In the pitching race, the Top 3 are also in a close fight with leader Jason Reyes holding a 0.35 ERA against the 0.46 of Delbert Sablan and 0.66 of Isidro Lizama. Serrano and Gunner Sablan are ranked fourth and fifth with their 1.00 and 1.33 ERA, respectively.

Anthony Acosta is out of the Top 5 in the pitching race, but is on top of the strikeouts category with 53, 10 more than Serrano’s output. Reyes has 37 so far, while Isidro Lizama has earned 35. In the most runs, Lushawnn Reyes and Delbert Sablan have 20 each for the tie. There are also deadlocks in the most RBIs with Joseph Ada and Delbert Sablan having 12 and in the most triples between Gunner Sablan and Kazu Dela Cruz, who have three apiece. Ada and Delbert Sablan have the solo lead in the doubles (seven) and homers (three), respectively.

Meanwhile, in the Junior League division, the Braves’ Vicente Camacho went 12-for-24 for an average of .500, but a lot of batters could still catch up or slip past him.

They include his teammate Leve’Que Iguel and the Falcons’ Nixon Smith, who recorded similar batting averages of .473, the Enforcers’ Thomas Agulto (.458), the Braves’ Josenio Alvarez (.454) and JP Celis (.440), the Ol’Aces Trevor Lieto (.428), the Falcons’ Froilan Camacho (.428), the Enforcers’ Sean Rabauliman (.428), and the Comets’ Sab Saures (.416), and A.J Sanchez (.416). Nine other batters made it to the leaderboard after averaging over .300.

Camacho is also No. 1 in the pitching contest, but his 0.58 ERA is not way ahead of the 0.77 of the Falcons’ Joel Norita and the 0.95 of Celis. Aven Evangelista is ranked fourth in the pitching race with with 1.07 ERA.

In other categories, Saures and Alvarez are tied in the most doubles scored with four apiece, while Camacho is in a three-way logjam for the lead in triples with Agulto and Lieto matching the latter’s two. Sanchez and Froilan Camacho are in a standoff in the RBIs division with seven each, while Celis and Evangelista lead in the strikeouts (32) and runs scored (15), respectively. In the homers category, only Froilan Camacho and Tarrence Babauta have circled the bases and they did in only once.