Guam Wins Third Micronesian Baseball Classic

Guam escaped a playoff nail-biter to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands after a pool play loss to CNMI and then claimed the third Micronesian Baseball Classic (MBC) title in the third meeting between the island territories. The Marianas continue to suggest that they are not far behind Guam in potential quality, but have yet to receive much exposure beyond Micronesia. Guam has now taken its second-straight MBC title, but a different team has won silver and bronze in each edition.

For the first time, the Micronesian Classic had only four teams, with Palau failing to send a squad for the first time and neither Guam nor CNMI sending junior teams. However, Pohnpei—like Kosrae and Chuuk (Truk) a member of the Federated States of Micronesia—sent a team for the first time to the event, which has been contested irregularly since 2016. It was not, however, the island’s first international event, as it went 2-11 in the 2006-14 Micronesian Games.

CNMI has a 38-21 all-time record in international tournaments, but has never contested a non-regional tournament. It has been a regular participant at the Micro Games, Pacific Games, and MBC, but has never sent its senior national team to one of the occasional Oceania tournaments.

The MBC is not recognised for rankings points by the WBSC, but it is worth noting that, if it was, Guam would have earned only 9.6 rankings points, enough to raise it two places in the world rankings, but hardly a substantial amount. CNMI would have re-entered the poll at No. 83 (out of 86 recognised federations) with 6.72, and Pohnpei and Kosrae would have totalled 3.84 and .96 points. Smaller federations have lamented reguarly to us that it is cost-prohibitive to host tournaments for ranking points and the Micro Classic is a good example.

After the tournament, Guam and CNMI remained in Hagåtña, Guam, for the Under-15 Oceania Championship.

06 January	CNMI 7-0 Kosrae	Group Stage
06 January	Guam 7-2 Pohnpei	Group Stage
07 January	CNMI 14-3 Pohnpei (6)	Group Stage
07 January	Guam 15-1 Kosrae (5)	Group Stage
08 January	Kosrae 6-5 Pohnpei	Group Stage
08 January	Guam 0-5 CNMI	Group Stage
09 January	Pohnpei 7-4 Kosrae	Page 3-4
09 January	Guam 6-4 CNMI	Page 1-2
10 January	CNMI 4-3 Pohnpei	Semi-Final
10 January	Guam 8-3 CNMI	Final

Final Standings
Team                    W/L      RF          RA
Guam                   4-1          36           15
CNMI                   4-2          37           20
Pohnpei                1-4          20           35
Kosrae                  1-3          11           34

All-Time Medals
Team                    1^st           2^nd          3^rd
Guam                   2             1
CNMI                   1             1             1
Palau                                   1
Pohnpei                                              1
Kosrae                                                1

All-Time Standings
Team                    W/L      RF          RA
Guam                   13-5        169         113
CNMI                   11-6        142         96
Guam U23*         3-1          33           22
Palau                    4-6          48           95
Kosrae                  3-11        57           114
CNMI Juniors*   1-2          36           44
Pohnpei                1-4          20           35
*Did not count for medal placement.

Hat tip to theroonba.com for putting together the results.