HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — With 13 stolen bases, five hits and stellar pitching, the Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School Obispos ran, slugged and hurled themselves to the 7th Annual 76 PONY Guam Department of Education Interscholastic Sports Association Middle School Baseball League championship game win over the Agueda I. Johnston Middle School Pirates Sunday at Okkodo High School in Dededo.
Bishop’s starting pitcher JuanCarlo Presnell threw six strikeouts, allowed five hits and led his team to a convincing 12-2 win over the Pirates.
“I’ve been working for this my whole life,” JuanCarlo Presnell said. “Our team’s been grinding all season. We got the dub, and I’m proud of this team.”
Leading the Obispos’ hit-and-run production, Skyler Paulino connected for an RBI double and scored two runs, Madden Manibusan hit a double and Max Dirige and Reef Balajadia each hit singles and scored twice. Nathan Cruz hit a single. JuanCarlo Presnell scored two runs, and Joaquin Presnell, Cole Brub, Xander Paulino and Zion Quintanilla each scored a run.
With bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning, Agueda’s Gavin Alcantara on the mound and Dirige at the plate, Dirige blasted a high, towering fly to the center field fence but not deep enough and was caught for an out.
With one out and bases loaded and JuanCarlo Presnell at the plate, the eighth grader swung and missed. But the ball was thrown so hard the catcher couldn’t catch up with it. It hit the home plate umpire on his unprotected thigh, causing him to reel in pain and allowed Zion Quintanilla to score the winning run.
For the Pirates, Alcantara finished with a double and a single, Pierce Castro had a base hit and scored both of Agueda’s runs and Ashtyn Gumataotao, Kole Guerrero and Marques Atin each had a single.
After 40 total games and not a single rainout, Guam Amateur Baseball’s Bill Bennett said the season was special.
“What made it special is because we’ve got a lot of new kids. We have nine schools participating. It’s almost 200 kids, and a lot of kids that never get a chance to play anywhere else,” he said.
