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Yankees take solo lead in SBL
The Saipan Stevedore Yankees got even with the Brewers, cruising to a 9-2 win in their second outing in the 2014 Saipan Baseball League last Monday night at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield.
The victory also gave the Yankees the solo lead in the six-team field, as the 2012 champions improved to an 8-1 record. The defending champions GSM Brewers fell to second place with their 7-2 card. Both teams have one more game left in the regular season with the Yankees meeting the Northern Starz first on April 21 and the Brewers facing the latter on April 23. The four remaining games in the double-round robin regular season will determine the winners of the last two semis tickets this season, as the Brewers and Yankees have already secured the first two.
The Yankees boosted their chances to get the top seeding in the best-of-three semis series after neutralizing the Brewers, who scored only in the second and eighth inning.
Manny Cabrera and Kelvin Kapileo pitched for the Yankees with the former staying on the mound for two innings and giving up only two hits and one earned run. Kapileo closed out for the Yankees and allowed six hits and one earned run, while striking out six.
Cabrera gave up an RBI double to the Brewers’ Ton Leon Guerrero at the bottom of the second inning for the first run in the match. An A.J. Lizama run off a passed ball in the third inning tied the match before the Yankees grabbed the lead in the fourth, thanks to Brian Camacho’s three-run single.
The Yankees failed to score in the next two innings, but bounced back in the last three, getting four more runs to widen the gap, as the Brewers took time to nail their second run with Manny Sablan drilling an RBI double at the bottom of the eighth. Earlier at the top of the seventh, Pat Alepuyo had a sacrifice out, while Greg Iskawa and Chris Camacho reached off passed balls at the top of the eighth, and Iskawa blasted an RBI triple in the ninth.
The Yankees then finished off the Brewers quickly at top of the ninth with Kapileo striking out leadoff batter Diego Camacho and the last two batters going out on a double play. Centerfielder Ben Jones was on top of the last two defensive stops, as he caught a fly from Tyrone Omar and then threw the ball to Iskawa at second base for the tag out on Leon Guerrero.
