Called “Manny” by his peers, Sablan ended his second Pacific Games event as the CNMI’s team captain in baseball, defeating Guam for the gold medal on September 8.
The team defeated Palau, 1-0 in their opening game but slipped on “mental errors” and lost to New Caledonia, 2-3. They fell to Guam in a third game, decreasing the CNMI’s chances of bringing home a medal.
The team however, gained confidence after completing the round robin tournament with victories over American Samoa (9-4) and Fiji (2-1).
“Since this is the SPG, all the teams are going for one thing, which is the gold. We trained for two months and before we left to New Caledonia we prepared ourselves with our good managers and coaches,” Sablan said.
“The two losses from Guam and New Caledonia woke up the boys and we picked it up in our next two games. The way I looked at Guam, they were always a tough competitor. I knew about them and Palau, but I wasn’t sure about New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa.”
Down in the playoffs, team CNMI faced a tough doubleheader versus New Caledonia and defending champion Palau.
Young athlete Josh Jones eventually pitched a full nine innings to crush Palau, 8-0, and pitched in the last three innings versus New Caledonia. The hosting team fell, 11-5 after a solid six-run eighth inning from the CNMI.
“We took advantage of their (New Caledonia’s) errors and our bats were on. After we walked away with a win we had an hour break and we just put our heads together.” said Sablan.
Since competing in the 2010 Micronesian Games in Palau, Jones proved himself once again with more than 30 strikeouts and less than six walks overall. The former Big League player allowed less than nine hits with no runs and pitched 33 innings.
“It’s a lucky thing we had Josh Jones in the team. Ever since Palau, everyone was just talking about him.
“They couldn’t hit him.
“We haven’t even played our first game and coaches from the other teams were asking us, ‘Where’s your lefty pitcher?’” noted Sablan.
Manny, who first competed in the Pacific Games at Guam in 1999, now hopes for back-to-back titles for the CNMI.
The next Pacific Games are set for Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in 2015.
Managed by Tony Rogolifoi, the team also included: Vicente Cepeda, Jerome Delos Santos, Franco Flores, Miguel and Jesus Iguel, Thomas Joab, Byron Kaipat, Keoni Lizama, Juan Maratita, Tyrone Omar, Craig Sanchez, Elton Santos, and Eric Tenorio.
