Team Guam Baseball gunning for gold

by Dave Delgado

Guam - Our men's national baseball team will head to the Pacific Games well rested and ready to go as they look to bring home the gold. The team is hungry to get out there and represent the island and redeem themselves after a tough showing in last year's Micronesian Games held in Palau.

Coach Mark Torre says that the team heading to New Caledonia has a lot of talent and experience. He said, "We are doing a lot of conditioning and the guys are fresh off a long season in the BBL, so a lot of them are experienced. We have a mix of veteran players along with some newer players who I can't say are rookies because they have a world of experience. These guys have been in different levels of international competition. So I say at least half of the team has some experience with the Pacific Games or South Pacific Games."

Guam has done well in the past coming away with gold medals in previous games. This year's team is well rounded with good sticks through out the lineup backed up by solid defense and good pitching. Veteran leadership and discipline will be the key factor in New Caledonia.

"We have been working hard as usual and it's a short timeframe, but we are trying to get everything done," said Joe Tuquero. "Being one of the veterans and senior players on the team I'm going to be acting more as a leader and helping coach Mark and coach Al on the coaching end and if I'm need to play, I will be able to play. We appreciate the addition of coach Mark Torre he has brought in some new strength training ideas that he has practiced with it and us seems to be working so hopefully we can pull through and bring it home. We're shooting for gold as usual and this is a pretty good team. We had a good team last year in Palau but we just couldn't put it together last year in Palau. We are disappointed and in all due respect to all the teams in Micronesia and the Pacific we hope that they bring out good competition and may the best team win."

For some of the players on the team the trip marks their first appearance at the Pacific Games. Playing along side some of the big names in baseball the younger guys on the squad will pick up good experience and knowledge of the game first hand from the older veterans.

Jathan Barnes told KUAM Sports, "We have a lot of experience with new talent on the team and a good mix with the young and old. We expect a lot of good competition out there in New Caledonia, there's a lot of tough competition and we hope to bring back the gold. I would like to thank everyone for supporting baseball, thank you support Team Guam."