3-peat for Cardinals in Saipan Baseball League

The cards are always in favor of the Cardinals as they won their third straight title after sweeping the Falcons in two straight games of the best-of-3 championship series of the 2025 Saipan Baseball League men’s open at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Baseball Field.

The final showdown on Wednesday, Oct. 29, had everything—drama, hits, and of course, at this time of the year, rain. A mid-game downpour caused a delay, but once the skies cleared, the season finale pressed on.

Just like the rain, the Cardinals poured it on with multiple runs and back-to-back hits throughout.

They jumped ahead with two runs by the second inning, then exploded for nine more in the third—powered by RBI hits from Mike Brownstein, Brian Camacho, Tindin Leon Guerrero, and Pate Tenorio Jr.—to make it 11-0.

After the rain delay, the Cards stayed hot, adding six more runs in the sixth for a massive 17-0 lead. The Falcons finally got on the board when Benen Iguel drove in Ian Norita, then added two more late runs, but it wasn’t enough. The Cardinals closed it out 17-3, with Nate Guerrero finishing on the mound after a dominant pitching performance by ace K.J. Villagomez from the first to the eighth inning.

In the first game on Monday, Oct. 27, the Cardinals and Falcons went head-to-head in a tight matchup early on, but the Cards turned it up and came out on top, 12-6. Riding that momentum, they carried the fire into Game 2 and clinched their third straight league championship.

The Cardinals team was made up of Mike Brownstein, Nate Camacho, Jerald Cabrera, Brian Camacho, Eli Aughenbaugh, Tindin Leon Guerrero, Keoni Kaipat, Poland Masaharu, Pat Tenorio Jr., K.J. Villagomez, and Nate Guerrero.

Villagomez, the ace of the team and national team pitcher said after the game, “We had a great season. This is going to be my last season. Thank you to all the fans and to all teams that we challenged. All of them are great. Succeed, never give up, and do your best, that's all I gotta say.”

Brownstein, who was a former professional baseball player in the Milwaukee Brewers Double A system, said that he enjoyed playing local baseball. It was his first time playing in the league after almost two years living on the island and said, “I’ve loved every minute of it. I love this island. I didn’t even know there was baseball played here so I just showed up and this is perfect—just to know that there’s baseball here and it’s such a popular sport. Being on the Cardinals, they grind every single inning and I just love being a part of it.”

On their championship win, he said, “it’s just such a privilege. From the very beginning, you can just tell the guys wanted it and we just never stopped so, great game all around. K.J. threw such a great game and we just hit and put pressure on them the entire game. But kudos to them as well, it was a great match up and great two games, and it’s just a privilege to win it,” he said. In the final game, he said their offense just got started early, while the first game was really close.

“That’s what you want, to close it out in two games. We dealt with the rain too but we just battled. It was a great game—love it.”