By Jonathan V. Perez
Variety News Staff

A skills contest for the players in the Saipan Little League will be one of the side events of the 5th Annual NMI Crime Stoppers Softball Tournament, which opens at 6 p.m. today at the Miguel Basa “Tan Ge” Pangelinan Ballfield.
Team DFS will open up the tournament when they go up against PIC after the brief opening ceremonies tonight. This will be followed by the Team Nang-Stevedores match.
Team Para will meet Customs in the third game while No Zone battles LaoLao Bay in the final match.
The seven remaining teams will play on Saturday, the continuation of the elimination round.
All night games in the three-day tournament, which is an annual fundraising event for the CNMI Crime Stoppers program, will be played at the Tan Ge Softball field at the Susupe Sports Complex while day matches will be held at the DanDan Elementary School ballfield.
The tournament will end on Jan. 28, Sunday, at the DanDan Ballfield where the champion will be crowned. The name of the champion team will be included on the Perpetual trophy.
The second to fourth place teams will also get trophies and team prizes.
There will be no home run derby this year. Instead organizers are including a skills contest to test the players’ skills in base running and throwing accuracy.
The skills contest is open to player’s 12-and-iunder, 13-15 and over-16. A $5 entrance fee will be collected in the skills contest with the winners getting a trophy and various prizes.
Organizers are still securing other prizes in order for them to give awards to second and third place finishers.
The tournament will be simultaneously held with the mini camp to be conducted by Major League player JR Hattig of the Toronto Blue Jays.
The camp will be divided into five different sessions in order to accommodate all the kids who want to have a chance to learn from Hattig.
Jerry Ayuyu is one of the coordinators of the double event this weekend.
For more information, call Ayuyu at 287-9104, NMI Crime Stoppers Coordinator Sgt. Tom Blas at 285-0101, Jim Arenovski at 287-7037 or Jim Ripple at 235-2305.