Elton Santos

Elton Aldan Santos

• Born January 11, 1991

Biographical Information

Elton Santos pitched for the Northern Mariana Islands national team in the 2011 Pacific Games. He started their second game, against New Caledonia and began by fanning James Selefen before walking Christophe Jajha. He pitched shutout ball for six innings and was outdueling Rémi Couarraze 2-0 entering the bottom of the 7th and final frame. He had allowed only three hits and three walks to that point while whiffing six. He began the 7th by retiring Kevin Velayoudon but Herve Saint-Pol walked and David Durand reached on an error. After he plunked Selefen to load the bags, Franco Flores relieved but let all three runs score to hand Santos the loss. He again had a tough-luck game his next start, versus Fiji. He went six innings and struck out ten, allowing two hits, a walk and one unearned run but was battled evenly by Sanail Colainima; Josh Jones took over in the 7th. His third and last appearance came against New Caledonia in the quarterfinals. He relieved Flores in the third with two outs and a 4-3 deficit. He let one run score on a pick-off error but then threw 3 1/3 shutout innings (3 H, 1 BB, 6 K) before Jones relieved with the game at 5-5. The Northern Mariana Islands completed the comeback win and would go on to Gold. Santos had certainly done a fine job: 15 2/3 IP, 8 H, 6 BB, 4 UER, 0 ER, 23 K, but he was 0-1 to show for it. Surprisingly, he was not the staff ace as Jones was even more dominant (4-0, 5 H, 4 BB, 36 K, 0 R in 24 IP)! He finished second in ERA (behind Jones), third in opponent average (.167, behind Freddy Cepeda Jr. and Jones), 5th in IP (between Kalson Dulei and Royce Sadang), tied Jacques Levy and Emosi Gotegote for most hit batsmen (3), 2nd in K (behind Jones), tied for third in appearances (behind Jones and Colainima) and tied for second in starts (behind Colainima).