Now playing in Union City California in the Nor Cal Select CABA West Regional Tournament

Day 1 Results:
Game 1 vs Team Mudville (Washington state): lost 11-0
Game 2 vs West Coast Baseball Academy (California): won 2-1

Nohea Blas pitched seven complete innings striking out four and walking two.  The run was unearned and came off a ball by Blas sending the runner at third home to tie the game at 1 in the 3rd inning.  Blas also contributed at the plate going 3-3 w/a double for the game. Cooper Paulino also went 1-3 today. TJ Leon Guerrero and John “Seeds” Perez scored the 2 runs.

It was a total team effort with solid defense to help out Blas throughout the entire game.  A few Guam supporters made their way to the field to support the team and more will be coming with pool play games continuing the next two days.

This is the second tournament the Crusaders are participating in while in California.  Just last week the team was in Sacramento trying to defend their title they won last July in the California baseball academy annual Sacramento River Challenge.  The tournament had players in age from 21 and under while we fielded a team with one 17 year old and the other 12 players 16 years and under.  We did our best but the age and talent level (with most of the players in the tourney play JC baseball) was above the level of the team.

This tournament is now an 18-under one and the boys feel more comfortable.  The favorites to win the tournament just so happens to be the team that 10-run ruled us this morning.

Day 2 result

Game 3: Crusaders 1 – Raw Sluggers (Fremont CA) 8

It was a tough day on the field for the Crusaders yesterday as they committed a total of 4 errors which lead to 7 unearned runs being scored by the Raw Sluggers team.

Cooper Paulino pitched all 7 innings and did a great job on the mound as the game was tied 0-0 for the first 3 innings. The 4th inning was the error filled inning which lead to 6 of the 8 runs being scored from costly errors by the defense.  Paulino ended the game striking out 2, walking 1 and giving up 8 runs 7 of which were unearned.

Offensively the Crusaders left 11 runners stranded on base for the game while loading the bases twice and not scoring a run on both occasions.  Nohea Blas, Rodney Cruz, TJ Leon Guerrero and Cooper Paulino contributed with hits for the Crusaders while Jude Santos scored the lone run for the game.

The Crusaders face a 16u prep baseball team from California (who also have a 1-2 record for the tournament) at 4:30 pm.  Hopefully the boys can bounce back from the loss yesterday and play crusaders baseball.  Pitching and defense is key and so far our pitching has shown up but the defense is something were still working on.

The Crusaders would like to thank the Chamorro community in the Bay Area for coming to the games and showing their support for the team.

(Coach Pat Leon Guerrero provided the team’s snapshot)