Flores aims to capitalize on opportunity

CNMI Majors All-Stars manager Joe Flores hopes to take advantage of the opportunity given to them in the 2015 Asia Pacific Middle East Little League Regional Baseball Tournament, which opens today at the Guilin Institute of Tourism in Guilin, China.

Team CNMI poseS for a group photo after attending last Friday’s mass at the Santa Remedios church in Tanapag. They left early Saturday morning to compete in the 2015 Asia Pacific Middle East Little League Regional Baseball Tournament in Guilin, China. (Jon Perez)

The CNMI Little Leaguers open their Pool A campaign against the tournament hosts at 8:30am today. Their complete Pool A schedule will be against Saudi Arabia, and dangerous teams Hong Kong, and the Philippines, in that order.

They avoided the group of defending champion South Korea and powerhouse Chinese-Taipei, which will be joined by Indonesia, Guam, and Thailand in Pool B.

Flores said that their ultimate goal is to teach the World Series but he and the coaching staff knows that it won’t be that easy.

“We’re going to face a lot of tough competition since this is the regional tournament. This is not just the regular season or the district tournament. This is a higher level of competition and we need to bring out our A game,” said Flores in an interview with Saipan Tribune after last Friday’s mass at the Santa Remedios Church in Tanapag.

“But we managed to get into a pretty good pool and we’ll take advantage of that. We have a good chance and we’ll do our best to win every game. We’ll just take it one game at a time,” Flores added.

The entire team—along with head coach Tomas A. Camacho and assistant Mike A. Cruz—left Saipan at 6am on Saturday. The team, also accompanied by parents Ned Norita and Ben Camacho, stopped over at Japan’s Narita Airport before heading to Shanghai where they took another flight to the northeastern City of Guilin.

The team is a pitcher-heavy squad that is composed of the 14 best players from the 12 teams that competed in the Saipan Little League’s last season.

This will also mark the first time that the CNMI will be fielding a female player in 12-year-old Kiana Aldan, who will be making her debut as a member of the Commonwealth’s All-Star team.

“I used to play softball but I quit because I like baseball more. I’m happy and at the same time excited of being a member of the All-Stars. I hope to do my best in helping the team to win,” said the incoming sixth grader Aldan, who is a shortstop and a member of reigning Saipan Little League champions Red Sox.

Tanapag Village is well represented as five players made it to Team CNMI, represented by Saipan. They are made up of SLL regular season most valuable player Vicente A. Camacho II, Aven Evangelista, Kyle Kapileo, Antonio Deleon Guerrero Norita, and closer Zach Reyes

Jordan Babauta, SLL finals MVP Zachary Camacho, Justin Celis, Orren Cruz, Donaven Deleon Guerrero, Devon B. Pangelinan, Sean Rabauliman, Joven Reyes, and Zach Reyes are the other members of the team.

It was in 2006 when the CNMI last clinched a World Series berth when Asia and the Pacific were still separate regions. The CNMI were the Pacific representatives, while Japan carried Asia. The CNMI were also the Pacific representatives in 2004 where they ended Guam’s three-year reign from 2001 to 2003.

Chinese-Taipei topped the tournament in 2007 when Asia and Pacific were combined into one region. Guam went to World Series in South Williamsport in 2008 while Chinese-Taipei reigned from 2009 to 2013 with South Korea breaking their streak last year.

Saipan earned the right to represent the Commonwealth after sweeping Rota in a race-to-three series in last month’s CNMI District Tournament hosted by the Southern island.

The team would like to thank Skywalker Communications Group, Western Pacific Telecom, P&A Corp., Pacific Amusement, Paradise Island Animal Hospital, Mobil, J.E.T. Holdings, Island Apparel, and Rep. Ed Propst (Ind.-Saipan).