Easy wins for Little Legals, Falcons

A Little Legals batter avoids being hit by a pitch during their game against IT&E in the Majors division of the SLLB last Saturday at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Basa Pangelinan Ballfield. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Little Legals and Falcons demolished their respective foes in the Majors division of the 2016 Saipan Little League Baseball last Saturday at the Miguel “Tan Ge” Basa Pangelinan Ballfield.

The Falcons saw action in the curtain-raiser and crushed McDonald’s 22-0, while the Little Legals dominated IT&E Regulators, 16-7, in the second game.

The Falcons finished strong, scoring 19 of their total runs in the last three innings. An eight-run top of the fourth turned their precarious 3-2 lead to an 11-2 spread. The Falcons got three earned runs in the fourth off Alex Yaguel, Keoni Serrano, and Kyle Kapileo’s RBI singles.

McDonald’s, on the other hand, was shutdown in the fourth and although it gained five runs in the fifth, it was not enough to bring the team back in the game, as the Falcons earlier added three more runs at the top of the fifth and had another eight-run production at the top of the last inning.

A 1-2-3 inning on McDonald’s at the bottom of the sixth courtesy of a fly out at third and back-to-back strikeouts from Chris Gonzales capped the Falcons’ easy win.

McDonald’s used three different pitchers in the Falcons juggernaut from the fourth to sixth inning, but to no avail.

Kapileo paced the Falcons, as he went 4-for-5 and made three RBIs and three runs. Sandy Kani was only 2-for-3 and Serrano hit 3-for-5, but they added three runs apiece.

In the second game, the Little Legals walked away with the lopsided win two innings early after pounding IT&E in the fourth inning.

The Little Legals were only ahead by four, 4-0, after three complete innings, but drilled 12 runs at the top of the fourth to close the game quickly via 10-run mercy rule. Six of the Little Legals’ players at the batting order went at bat twice in the pivotal fourth inning and three of them reached home two times. Only one player from the top of the order did not make it home for the Little Legals first eight runs in that inning—four of them were earned runs. Lucio Aldan was among those who batted twice and went 2-for-2 with two runs, a triple, a double, and two RBIs. Justin Agulto also registered two runs, got an RBI, and recorded a triple and a double.

The bleeding finally stopped for IT&E when Delbert Sablan was called stealing second. Sablan earlier singled in his second at bat.

After getting the third and final out, IT&E was pressured to make one run after another to stay in the game, but it got none. Sablan, who closed out for the Little Legals, posted back-to-back strikeouts after allowing a double to IT&E leadoff batter Patrick Celis. The pitcher, who gave up another hit—a single to fourth batter Robert Tenorio—then picked up a grounder and threw to first base for the third and final out.