The Padres’ Kolby Lifoifoi high-fives his teammate after a base hit during a game in the 2024 Tan Holdings Saipan Baseball League held at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios baseball field.
THE Padres are headed to the playoffs of the 2024 Tan Holdings Saipan Baseball League as the no. 3 seed after gaining their eighth win by defeating the Royals, 5-3, at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios baseball field on Monday.
The last ball game of the regular season started slow with neither team able to score.
The Royals were handed three consecutive outs with no hits recorded by the first three batters in the lineup. The Padres’ first two batters were picked off, but third at bat JP Sablan broke the silence with a single and later moved to second as Darion Jones was given a base on ball. A scoring opportunity then opened as both runners capitalized off a wild pitch to advance a base, but was denied the trip home by a strikeout that closed the opening inning.
Both teams continued the back-and-forth battle throughout the next three innings, but neither was able to find the spark needed to ignite momentum.
In the fifth inning, the Royals finally caught a break. Nate Torres took advantage of a defensive error and scurried past home plate along with Frank Norita and Travis Malwebug, who were brought home by Jboy Mendiola with an RBI single and Kier Agda with a sacrifice fly to extend the deficit, 3-0.
Th Padres answered back in the bottom half with Ben Jones acting as the spark plug with an RBI single. Darion Jones, Austin Benavente, Keith Kintol, Rich Salas also earned an RBI each for a total of five runs to give the Padres the lead, 5-3.
The Royals nearly cooked up a rally in the top of the sixth, but were met with three outs with a runner left on third base. Although the Padres were also met with silence with three consecutive outs, they were still in the lead.
The Royals had one last chance to stay in the game, but were quickly waved off as the Padres retaliated with a pick off followed by two flyballs caught by leftfielder Rich Salas to end the game victorious, 5-3.
With the regular season complete, only the top seven teams will advance to the playoffs. They are the Falcons, the Bandits, the Padres, the Cardinals, the Braves, the Blue Jays and the Sandlot.
The playoffs will kick off with the Cardinals facing the Braves on Monday; the Padres vs. the Blue Jays on Tuesday; and the Bandits against the Sandlot on Wednesday.
