Junior Nats, Cardinals overpower opponents

The Junior Nationals’ Joel Deleon Guerrero waits for the pitch during one of their games in the 2023 Tan Holdings-Saipan Baseball League season at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Baseball Field.(LEIGH GASES)

The red-hot Junior Nationals and unbeaten Cardinals overpowered their opponents in the 2023 Tan Holdings-Saipan Baseball League season on Monday and Wednesday.

The Junior Nationals, fresh off a tourney in Palau, didn’t skip a beat with their first game back home as they stole away with the win against the Bandits on Monday, 7-3, while the Cardinals shot down the Falcons, 14-8, on Wednesday.

The Junior Nats put four on the board in the second inning after a quiet start to the game. They took advantage of the free base on balls to Joel Deleon Guerrero and Justin Camacho who were brought home from RBI singles by Charlie McDonald and Jylon Sablan. 

Joell Borja then reached base, stole second, and came home on another base hit by J.R. Suel.

The Bandits had only one run in the first and coming out of the third inning, were down 2-5. They went scoreless in the next three innings as they went down in order on pop flies and ground outs and had only three men reach base—an error to Jess Iguel, a walk to Jay Camacho, and a hit by pitch to Charlie Wabol.

The Junior Nats were also scoreless in the fourth, fifth, and sixth inning, but were still up by three runs in the last inning. 

They managed to find openings on the field and add on to their lead as Sablan hit a double, followed by an RBI double by Borja, who then reached home on another double by Achilles Evangelista.

The Bandits were only able to tack up one more run in their last at-bat for a 3-7 final.

In the Cardinals-Falcons game, the Cardinals went big in the third inning as they scored six runs from back-to-back singles from the heart of their lineup. A big two-run RBI double made it 7-2 Cardinals after the Falcons drew first blood in the first inning.

The Falcons then couldn’t connect the bat to ball in the second, third, and fourth inning, but scored three in the fifth inning. Ian Norita was brought home on a J.J. Lifoifoi double then Giovanni Mira rounded the bases from an RBI single by A.J. Evangelista.

The Cardinals didn’t slow down after they scored five more runs in the fourth and fifth inning for a big 12-5 lead over the Falcons. The Cardinals had a good offensive night as almost all of them went 2 for 3 in their at-bats, with Nikko Saralu, Nate Camacho, Brian Camacho, Eli Augenbaugh, and Keoni Kaipat had two RBIs each.

Two more runs were scored by the Cardinals in the last inning and it was more than enough to get the win against the Falcons who only scored three more for the rest of the game.

The Cardinals are still the only undefeated team and are on top of the standings with nine wins, while the Junior Nats are at 6-2.