Girls with Game Fastpitch Softball League debuts

The Miguel “Tan Ge” Pangelinan Softball Field came alive over the weekend as the Saipan Little League’s Inaugural Girls with Game Fastpitch Softball League 2026 got underway, bringing young girls back to the diamond and drawing parents, family, and friends to watch players aged 9-12 step up to the plate.

The long-awaited league opened on Saturday, Jan. 10, with an opening ceremony that featured a parade of the five teams, made up of 75 players—Native Nenis, Aztecs, Little 8ers, Pink Sluggers, and Diamond Divas—along with a ceremonial first pitch by softball legend Bert Camacho.

On the first day of games Saturday, Native Nenis edged the Aztecs, 11-5, in a sparkler of an opening game. Little 8ers followed with a lopsided 21–2 win over the Pink Sluggers. Play continued on Sunday, Jan. 11, with the Pink Sluggers picking up their first win of the season, 15-6 over Native Nenis. Little 8ers remained the only unbeaten team, improving to two wins after an 11-3 victory against the Diamond Divas.

Games are played every Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am and 11am, with a time limit of one hour and 45 minutes or six innings, whichever comes first. The league is set up with three round-robin rounds, starting with a development round that includes a fourth-ball tee rule, before all teams move on to the playoffs.

After the final game wrapped up on Saturday, Saipan Little League Inc. president Ray Yumul said in an interview that the league was a long time coming. “It’s something that we’ve been working on for many years. We do have the regular baseball division that’s starting up in a few more weeks,” he said. “We’re very pleased with the turnout. We’re so elated. The families of the players, the volunteers, all the support from sponsors and the public at large came out in strong force and we’re happy that it kicked off with such a success.”

Girls with Game league commissioner Moriah Sablan, for her part, said of the games, “It was interesting to see. We have to build up our pitchers—that’s the one thing we knew that was going to be the hardest. Learning to do the underhand pitch is definitely different for most of these girls, but we knew that was going to happen coming in here, so we made them play a rule that on the fourth ball, every player got to hit off the tee. So no matter what, all these players are experiencing batting, they’re experiencing running around the bases—it was amazing to see.”

To the community, she said, “I really hope you all come out. These girls have been working hard, they’re driven, they’re passionate, they want to play. And just to show them that we have the support of the community will build up their confidence even more. The crowd was loud today, so if we can have it even louder, I can’t imagine what these girls will have with the confidence and the love from the community.”

Sponsors of the league include IT&E, Best Deal Merchandise, Robert Torres Law Office, TSL Foundation, Department of Public Works, Department of Corrections, and R&V Construction.