ANOTHER WIN FOR PHILIPPINE BLU GIRLS
THE Philippine Blu Girls continued wrecking havoc on the opposition by coming up with another abbreviated 11-1 shellacking of Indonesia on Tuesday to assure themselves of a top two finish in the elimination round of the softball tournament of the 30th Southeast Asian New Clark City Fields in Mabalacat, Pamapanga.
Curve ball artist Ann Antolihao had the Indonesian batters practically at the palm of her hands, shackling them with only three hits in a four-inning no relief job on the mound.
The strong-armed University of Santo Tomas mainstay got the needed support from her teammates at the other end of the field complementing her efforts with seven connections in the deciding fourth frame alone.
Eight of the Blu Girls reached home in that period, with Nicole Padasas and Angelie Ursabia breaking the hearts of the Indonesian pitchers they faced by belting out a pair of solo home runs each.
The outclassed Indonesians, actually surprised the world-rated Filipinas by scoring a run in the opening frame on a solitary hit. But head coach Randy Dizer’s Girls immediately fanned out the mild uprising with a three-hit, three-run salvo of their own in the next frame in what proved to be what they only needed in cruising to their third straight win, two of them in abbreviated fashions.
The top two teams after the five-team elimination round collide in the page-system semifinal phase with the winner automatically advancing outright to the winner-take-all gold medal clash.
The loser then battles the winner of the lower half of the page-system to determine which team earns the right play the automatic Finals qualifier for all the marbles.
The Blu Girls shot out Cambodia, 6-0, then took the measure of Malaysia, 8-1, at the start of the softball competitions on Monday.
The Blu Boys, on the other hand, found Indonesia a hard nut to crack salvaging a come-behind 7-3 win also on Tuesday for their second consecutive triumph.
Victors, 11-0, in their first game, the Blu Boys of coach Eufronio dela Cruz needed a four-run binge at the bottom of the seventh and final period to escape what could have been a major upset.
The Indonesians, thorns to the Blu boys in many of the Filipinos’ SEA Games campaigns in the past, held their hosts until the end of the sixth, which ended with the two teams tied at 3 runs apiece.
But the Blu Boys, egged on by the cheering of the standing room only crowd, woke on time behind playing assistant coach Apol Rosales’ and Gerone Riparip’s booming bats in that crucial last inning run.