ECSL 1st Round Completes; the East to meet West

With first round games completed, the teams are ranked as follows: (Masters Division) Ngaraard Redmen, 5 wins, no loss; Ngarchelong Bluesharks, 4 wins, 1 loss; Ngchesar Oldiais and Ngiwal Kiuuluul are tied at third with 2 wins, 3 losses; and Melekeok Salty Boys and Kayangel’s Angels are tied at fourth, each with 1 win and 4 losses.In the Open Division, Ngaraard N5 Reds and Ngiwal ChelidWith are top with each team earning 4 wins and 1 loss; Ngchesar Oldiais is second with 3 wins, 2 losses; Ngarchelong Blue Sharks is ranked third with 2 wins, 3 losses; and Melekeok Salty Boys and Kayangel Angels are tied at fourth, each with 1 win and 4 losses.Ngaraard and Ngiwal’s teams played their last games of the ECSL first round last Saturday.In the masters division, the Ngaraard Redmen easily defeated the Ngiwal Kiuuluul with a score of 16 to 4.However, Ngaraard N5 Reds struggled in its game against Ngiwal ChelidWith.The game between the two teams was a seesaw battle.In the opening inning, it looked as if ChelidWith was sure to win, as it scored at will.The N5 Reds further spurred the thought when its defense committed costly errors.Halfway into the game, N5 Reds picked up its momentum and began scoring.Its defense tightened, as did Ngiwal.More than 4 lead changes took place between fourth and seventh inning.In the end, N5 Reds’ sluggers – home run sluggers – led the team to a win as they sent a couple of balls over the left field markers.N5 Reds won with a score of 15 to ChelidWith’s 13.In other games, Ngarchelong teams and Ngchesar teams played their first games of ECSL second round of games.In the open division game, Ngchesar Oldiais won with a score of 13 to Ngarchelong Blue Sharks 9.In the masters division, the Ngarchelong Blue Sharks, despite concentrated effort, lost to Ngchesar Oldiais.Ngchesar Oldiais scored 15 and the Ngarchelong Blue Sharks only managed 8.Don Bukurrou, the league’s commissioner, said that last Saturday’s games show the many of the teams have improved since the last two seasons.“It is becoming difficult to predict the outcome of each game.The batting averages are superb and the defensive plays I’ve witnessed could have made ESPN’s Play of the Week,” Bukurrou added.He said that next Sunday is one ECSL highlights.The top two teams of each division from the ECSL and West Coast Softball League will meet for the first time this year – a conference tournament.The venue of the games is Ngarchelong Baseball Field.Further details of the conference games will be announced prior to this weekend.