The tourney was not hampered by the slippery conditions Friday night with the Mayor of Tinian making the inaugural first pitch to kick-off the tourney. Seven brave teams showed up that day but only one came out victorious.
Team Balas, coached by coordinator Keith Nabors, crushed last year’s defending champions team HoooaaaH coached by Jay San Nicholas with an amazing force ending the competition with a blow out score of 17-2..
The seven teams that participated in this year’s annual softball tournament are: Team Balas coached by Keith Nabors, Team Sakudi coached by Jay San Nicolas, Da Marpo Bombers coached by Wally Emul, Team Hinemlo’ coached by Director Ray DLC Jr., Team TIM coached by Matthew DLC, and the defending Champions from last year, Team HoooaaaH coached by Rudeinn Sablan.
During the first night of action, team Balas readily showcased their talents on the Diamond by burying team Sakudi six feet under ground, 18-6 respectively.
Game two pegged the Marpo Bombers against team Hinemlo; the Bombers slipping past the Hinemlos by a hairline, 6-5.
And the last game of the night matched the defending champions last year team HoooaaaH against the TIMs crushing them with no mercy on the diamond as team HoooaaaH defended its title in the preliminaries, 15-1.
Friday morning brought new hope to the losers from bracket one, and an opportunity to the teams that did not compete yet.
The first bout of the day was new comer team PSS against the Marpo Bombers. The Bombers’ luck ran thick as they pushed their way past PSS by one point, 8-7.
Team Balas moved through the brackets breezily and with out stress defeating all of their opponents and waiting in the waters to strike the mighty champions from last year down.
HoooaaaH proved their worth as well after moving through the brackets just as quickly and efficiently as their final opponent, team Balas.
Saturday night at 8 pm both teams entered the Diamond feisty. Team Balas proved to be too good to beat as the struck the ball past the in fielders and out fielders without stress crushing the defending champions in the final bout of the tournament, 17-2.
The tournament followed the double elimination bracket. A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament’s championship round upon having lost two games or matches.
A double-elimination tournament is broken into two sets of brackets, the Winners Bracket and Losers Bracket (W and L Brackets for short; also sometimes Upper Bracket and Lower Bracket, respectively). After the first round, the winners proceed into the W Bracket and the losers proceed into the L Bracket.
Special thanks goes out to the sponsors of the tourney, Family Violence Task Force, Tinian Health Center, Community Guidance Center, DCCA/DYS Tinian, DCCA Saipan, The Tinian Mayors Office, and the Department of Commerce Tinian.
