Tuesday, June 19th, Asahi Baseball Field – Oldiais, the regular season pennant winner defeated Ngerchelong Blue Sharks to advance for the second season in a row to the championship.
Oldiais jumped to an early lead by scoring 5 runs in the first inning. In the bottom of the inning, Blue Sharks responded with 3 runs of their own, cutting the lead to 5 – 3. The combination of Oldiais’s prolific offense, Blue Sharks pitcher Hubert Raphael’s shaky performance and costly errors by Blue Shark defense propelled Oldiais to increase its lead to 10 10 – 5 in the 6th inning.
Oldiais starting pitcher Obong Belelai pitched 4 complete innings and veteran Fave Ngiramengior cruised through the rest of the game, limiting Blue Sharks to a single run in 3 innings.
In the final frame, Oldiais stretched their lead on a solo homer over the leftfield fence veteran slugger Reagan Sidoi, his second of only 2 homeruns of the PNBL season. Final Score, Oldias 11, Blue Sharks 5. Obong earned a win, Fave earned a save, while Hubert was charged with a loss. Oldiais will play the winner of Peleliu/Meyuns series for the 2018 PNBL championship. Blue Sharks will play the consolation game against the looser of the other series. Peleliu has 1 – 0 lead in their series.
The Wednesday night game between Meyuns and Peleliu was called-off due to poor field condition. It will be played on Thursday night if weather improves and field is playable. (PR)