Former Major League Baseball player Jeff Kent survived his tribe’s first trip to tribal council on “Survivor: Philippines” on Wednesday.
At the reward challenge on Day 11, the two remaining Matsing Tribe members were spilt and absorbed into the Tandang and Kalabaw tribes. Denise Stapley, 41, joined the Kalabaw Tribe and 25-year-old Malcolm Freberg, who has the Matsing immunity idol, is now part of the Tandang Tribe.
The Matsing Tribe, which includes Kent, also lost a player on Day 11, which was yet another rainy, chilly day on the beach. Dana Lambert, 32, was feeling sick and couldn’t do more than curl up in a ball at the camp.
When host Jeff Probst came with the medics, they determined that she could try to continue but Lambert decided it was time to go. She had to be helped into the boat.
The Matsing Tribe narrowly lost both the reward challenge and the immunity challenge on Day 12 of the 39-day contest. Groups from both tribes had to run over a muddy pit, over a small hill, untie ropes to a drawbridge and hack through a board to release puzzle pieces. Then two players were charged with figuring out the phrase from the pieces with letters.
Katie Hanson, 22, had a hard time getting over the hill and 28-year-old Sarah Dawson and returning player Jonathan Penner, 50, struggled with the puzzle.
Kent, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and attends a ward in the Austin Texas Oak Hills Stake, hadn’t told anyone about being a baseball player. Dawson did recognize him, but didn’t announce it. Instead she would make comments about sports, in particular baseball, which had Kent worried.
Since Lambert had left, it was the three-person alliance of Kent, Penner and 24-year-old Carter Williams that held the majority in their camp. They reached out to Stapley as Hanson watched her alliance with Dawson and Lambert slowly dissolve.
In the end, it was Dawson who was blindsided and voted off the island. In a video filmed right after the elimination, she blamed Kent for her being voted off.
Utahn Angie Layton was the third person voted off the island.
“Survivor: Philippines” airs on Wednesday nights on CBS.
Email: rappleye@desnews.com