Third straight for Brotherhood

Brotherhood showed that they are still the kings of the Belau Men’s Slow-pitch Softball League.

Team Brotherhood flashes the No. 3 sign after claiming their third straight title with a two-game sweep of the San Antonio Masters in the finals of the Belau Men’s Slow-pitch Softball League yesterday at the Dandan Softball Field. (Jon Perez)

Behind the bats of Ben Hocog and Julian Camacho, Brotherhood swept the San Antonio Masters in their best-of-three title series held yesterday under a windy but 89-degree weather at the Dandan Softball Field.

Brotherhood completed their three-peat bid with a 17-11 win in the opener then finished off their opponents with a come-from-behind 10-8 decision in the finals, which was delayed for three weeks due to various reasons.

Hocog went a combined 6-for-10 in the series and played the hero’s role in Brotherhood’s Game 2 win with Camacho going 7-for-7 as they filled the void of Jerry Ayuyu, who seemed to be out of his element in the finals.

Hocog also scored three times in Game 1 with Camacho and Ton Marchen adding two each.

Brotherhood used a 10-run second inning as enough cushion, while Hocog punctuated their Game 1 win with a solo home run in the top of the sixth.

Camacho led off Brotherhood’s second-inning hit parade with a single with Jeff Diaz’s single sandwiching a Juan Diaz infield fly.

Joe Lizama singled to right to bring in Camacho and Jeff Diaz to open up Brotherhood’s scoring with Ken Kaipat, Ton Marchen, John Tomokane, John Terlaje, and Bill Aguon joining the hit barrage.

Brotherhood, also the pennant champions, had 10 hits alone against Masters pitcher John Cepeda in the second inning.

The Masters’ Game 1 loss put to waste Rep. Ralph Yumul’s 4-for-4 effort. He also had two runs, a triple, and three RBIs.

Jude Dickerson and Jeff Cabrera had solo shots in the first and seventh innings.

After a 30-minute break, Brotherhood and the Masters were at it again but this time the latter threatened to extend the series to a do-or-die match.

The Masters, after tying the score at 3-3 after one inning, needed a pair of runs by Reno Celis, and one each by Dickerson, Yumul, and Ben Mesa to enjoy an 8-4 lead entering the sixth.

Brotherhood, however, showed championship poise to send the game into an extra inning amd then completed their comeback behind Hocog’s two-run homer.

Bill Aguon doubled to left to start things off for Brotherhood. Ayuyu, after Ben Hocog struck out swinging, had an RBI single to let Aguon reach home plate.

Camacho singled, moving Ayuyu to second but they were left stranded following a Juan Diaz fly out to left field for the second out.

Jeff Diaz made it 8-7 as his single drove in Ayuyu and Camacho. He later scored on an error by Masters pitcher Ike Cabrera and the inning ended with another fly out by Ken Kaipat.

Both teams failed to score in the seventh sending the game to an extra inning that set up Hocog’s game-winning two-run shot.

Juan Diaz shot down the Masters in the bottom of the eighth, forcing Dennis Ngeskebei to ground out on a 5-3 put out play and Jeff Cabrera to an infield fly for the quick two outs. He gave up a single to Dickerson, but ended the game when he forced Yumul to fly out to left that was easily caught by Camacho.