Lieto impressive in Falcons win

Frankie Lieto had another impressive performance on the mound in the Falcons’ victory against the Blue Jays in the Saipan Baseball League’s Under-25 division last Tuesday at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field. (Jon Perez)

Frankie Lieto had an impressive showing on the mound, pitching three complete innings in relief to lead the Falcons to a 3-2 win over the Blue Jays last Tuesday night in the Under-25 division of the Saipan Baseball League at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

Lieto had a no-hitter and struck out 10 of the 11 batters he faced in leading the Falcons to its second straight win and tie the C.K. Cubs for the early lead in the four-team field. The Pirates is the other team playing in the youth league.

Lieto forced Davy Matagolai to ground out to first with Henry Aguon there to make the tag for the final out of the game. He relieved Kekuni Kai’noa after he gave up two runs in the top of the fourth.

Matagolai doubled and scored on a Kai’noa wild pitch, while Quinson Blas singled and reached home on a Falcons error as the Blue Jays went ahead, 2-0, in the top of the fourth.

He was also effective at the plate scoring the Falcons’ lone run in the bottom of the fourth. He walked, stole second, reached third on a Matagolai error, and scored on another throwing error by the Blue Jays.

Frankie Lifoifoi and Barry Sunumai added a run apiece in the bottom of the fifth and Lieto just shut down the Blue Jays after that.

The Blue Jays had three hits the entire game all given up by Kai’noa, while the Falcons had four.

In the Masters league, the IPI Masters rallied from a seven-run deficit in the first inning and escaped with an 14-11 victory against defending champion GSM Masters last Wednesday night.

GSM scored seven runs in the first, but could not repeat that offensive burst as IPI slowly came back and completed the win despite only having six hits.

John Acosta went perfect at the plate, 3-for-3 with an RBI and one run, while J.J. Cabrera, who walked twice, added two runs. Ralph Yumul also reached home plate twice, getting on base on a fielder’s choice and a walk.

Ed Santos, Ben Duenas, Reno Celis, and Phil Celis alternated on the mound for IPI combining for eight earned runs on six hits with 12 walks and four strikeouts.

Greg Camacho, who went 4-for-4 for GSM to remain perfect at the plate with a combined 7-for-7 in the season, got two doubles, while Rep. Vinnie Sablan batted 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs.

On Monday, the Papa Bears was merciless in a 34-5 mauling of last year’s runners-up Saisei. Saisei used six pitchers against the Bears, but could not get the right person to prevent the scoring barrage of their opponents.