By Robert Balajadia
High school sports is back!
March 1st was slated as the official start of the 2021 high school sports season and the ISA opened their sports calendar with softball, the only 3rd quarter sport that was unable to finish in 2020. Welcoming high school sports back to the island were the GW Geckos and Tiyan Titans, who played their opener at the Tiyan Field Monday afternoon.
An errant filled contest resulted in a one-sided game with the Geckos grabbing a 34-2 lead after three-and-a-half innings with the game being forced to postponement due to loss of sunlight.
New to this season, the mercy-ruling of a 15-run lead is now applied after four complete innings instead of the previous three innings. A decision is still left to be made regarding how this one will play out.
Geckos post 11 runs in the 1st
Softball rust was being shaken off on both sides of the ball after the year-absence, but the Titans struggled at the mound giving up nine straight runs before opting for a change of pitchers. The Titans would give up to more runs before the innings end with the Geckos scoring 11 unearned runs.
Tiyan’s offense got a uptick in their first at bat as Isabella Acosta brought in the teams first run off a clean hit right over second base for an RBI single, though it would be the lone run for the Titans in the inning. The Gecko defense, behind pitcher Savannah Grant, would end the inning on a strikeout to preserve the 11-1 lead.
GW’s offense started to roll in the second with Rocki-Jae Mesa highlighting the inning with a three-run homer to jump out to a 14-1 lead.
Errors would continue to dominate the game with GW adding seven runs in the 3rd inning and nine more in the top of the 4th to grab the commanding 34-2 lead. Tiyan wouldn’t get a chance to begin their 4th inning with the loss of sunlight, forcing the game to be postponed.
GW’s next action will come Saturday as they host the Academy Cougars while the Titans will travel to JFK Wednesday.
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QUICK HITS
The JFK Islanders won the first ever Memorial Weekend High School Basketball Tournament.
The All-Tournament selection were Zhion Macapinlac JFK, Darwin Ecijan JFK, Matthew Quinata Southern, and Malcom Fernandez Tiyan.
JFK’s Collin Rillamas was named tournament MVP.
