WITH the 11-under title already in the bag, the Misamis Oriental baseball teams are poised to impose complete domination in the Little League Philippine Series 2024 Regional Tournament with their four other entries now battling in the finals today, February 1 at the Provincial Capitol Grounds of Malaybalay City, Bukidnon.
The Paglaum Sports-backed MisOr kids from Medina town needed just the 4th inning to force the resignation of their 11-under rivals from Aleosan, Cotabato province after an 11-4 whipping on Thursday’s only championship game played off the grassy Capitol grounds.
“This is sports development at its best. Misamis Oriental Governor Peter ‘Sr Pedro’ M. Unabia can be proud of the Little League program because we develop kids since elementary,” said Medina town Mayor Donato N. Chan who came to watch and provide moral support in the company of Medina ABC president Emmanuel Felix Pupos, SK chair Gilbert Aguiman Jr, school principal and Medina Baseball Club president Ricky Abao as well as US-based supporter Andy Aguinaldo.
Chan has categorically thanked the baseball-loving Aguinaldo, a retired senior manager of a Boeing company in the United States, for making the Medina kids special when he equipped them with expensive baseball bats and gloves, shoes, and a P180,000-worth pitching machine.
The 63-year-old Aguinaldo was also hands-on in giving baseball tips to the MisOr boys when they whipped their elimination round opponents one after the other.
“My heart belongs to Medina where my late father used to serve as a doctor. The abundance of baseball talents in Medina and the neighboring towns will convince me and my wife to buy properties for us to regularly visit Misamis Oriental,” the now US citizen Aguinaldo told the Manila Times.
Inspired by the massive support, the Paglaum MisOr’s intermediate 50/70 13-under team made it to the finals after the submission of Davao del Norte suffered a 17-1 beating just in the 3rd inning.
Highlighting the lopsided conquest was a couple of Ian Neil Abrea and John Alexis’ home runs being helped out by the dynamic troika of pitcher Angelo Manzano, catcher Jake Adrian Gamana, first base Alvin Pellegrino, and the crowd-stirring ‘cat-and-mouse’ playing of the diminutive Kaiser Perez.
Considered Misamis Oriental’s top bet to win the national championship in Batangas this coming April, the Paglaum’s 12-under hitters forced the early resignation of Gingoog City after a 6-0 thumping over at the muddy field of Barangay Sumpong on Thursday morning.
But they were seriously threatened in a rainy afternoon scuffle with their tough foes from Maitum, Davao del Norte who rallied from a three-run deficit to force an 11-all deadlock before the MisOr’s thrilling 13-11 breakthrough on their last bat.
Misamis Oriental is also seeking a title run in the 14-under junior, 16-under senior, and 16-under senior talents from Magsaysay municipality in the softball girls rivalry.
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