CNMI spikers absorb first loss

 The CNMI’s Tyce Mister and Chris Nelson missed recording back-to-back wins in the beach volleyball competition of the 2011 Pacific Games yesterday and the Commonwealth sluggers will try not to bring more bad news from New Caledonia when they gun for an important win against the host team today.

The CNMI spikers bowed to American Samoa in straight sets at the Terrain de beach-volley Koutio in Dumbea to drop to a 1-1 record. The youthful tandem of Sam Samasoni Luaiva and Sigalu Selefuti Aitui swept the veteran pair of Nelson and Mister, 21-11, 21-15.

Luaiva at 15 is the youngest among the four players who saw action in the first game of Day 2 of the beach volleyball competition. His teammate is only 17, more than 20 years younger than the 43-year-old Mister and 40-year-old Nelson.

The Commonwealth bets will try to recover from the loss today when they face defending champion Tahiti at 12pm (11am Saipan time).

Before Mister and Nelson’s third game at the sand court, the CNMI Baseball Team will play first at 9am (8am) in Mont-Dore and must win against New Caledonia to keep its medal hopes alive.

Winner of the CNMI-New Caledonia tiff will advance to the semifinals and face Palau later in the afternoon at 1pm. Defending champion Palau failed to earn a return trip to the finals outright after losing to undefeated Guam yesterday, 0-4.

In the New Caledonia-CNMI tiff, the host team is slightly favored after eking out a 3-2 win in the elimination round last week.

The Commonwealth sluggers were in control of their first meeting with New Caledonia, leading at 2-0, after six and a half innings. However, coach Tony Rogolifoi’s wards collapsed in the last inning, committing one error after another, allowing the host team to escape with the win with three unearned runs.

After the close defeat to New Caledonia, the CNMI dropped another heartbreaker against Guam, 5-6, but won its last two games in the elimination round against American Samoa, 9-4, and Fiji, 2-1. The Commonwealth’s other victory came against Palau, 1-0, during the opening of the baseball competition on Aug. 30.

Josh Jones pitched for the CNMI against Palau and had 14 strikeouts. He sat out in the game against New Caledonia and Guam and pitched only one inning versus American Samoa (with three strikeouts) and two innings against Fiji (with five strikeouts). Jones is expected to get a lot of minutes in the playoff game today against New Caledonia and if possible, over Palau. He will be sharing the mound with Elton Santos, Franco Flores, and Vince Cepeda.

On offense, the CNMI will lean on Tyrone Omar and Jesus Iguel, who scored on a run apiece against New Caledonia. Iguel also reached home plate for the CNMI off Jerome Delos Santos’ hit against Fiji and was 2-for-4 at bat and scored two runs and two RBIs versus American Samoa. Designated hitter Keoni Lizama was only 1-for-3 against American Samoa, but posted three runs, while Eric Tenorio carded two RBIs and one run off a 1-for-4 performance at the plate.

Dillay completes 400m

Meanwhile, Douglas Dillay raced in the 400m run yesterday and timed in at 54.87 seconds.

The CNMI runner failed to qualify to the next round as only the Top 2 runners on Heat 3 were allowed to advance and he finished seventh. Fiji’s Ratutira Narara topped the heat at 48.68 second, joining Papua New Guinea’s Wala Gime (49.11 seconds) to the semifinals.

Dillay’s teammates-Rachael Abrams and Trevor Ogumoro-took a break yesterday and will return to the Stade Numa Daly in Noumea. Ogumoro will be competing in the long jump at 4:30pm, while Abrams will race in the 200m run at 3:40pm. Dillay will have a day off today and will join his last event-the 400m hurdles-tomorrow. Ogumoro and Abrams will have their last event this Saturday with the former competing in triple jump and the latter in long jump.

Medals pour in

Medals continued to pour in Day 11 of the 2011 Pacific Games with New Caledonia catching most of them.

As of 7pm last night, New Caledonia has earned 74 gold medals, 59 silver, and 29 bronze to lead the 22-nation competition. Tahiti remains at third with its 31-22-21 tally, while Fiji and Papua New Guinea are still neck-and-neck with their 22-23-28 and 20-14-25 medal haul, respectively. Kiribati won its first gold, joining fifth placer Samoa (4-10-13), Nauru (4-5-4), Tonga (3-5-9), and FSM (3-0-0).