PH keeps baseball diadem; Volcanoes dethrone Malaysia

NEW CLARK CITY -- The Philippines swept its way to the baseball crown, blasting Thailand, 15-2, Sunday in the 30th Southeast Asian Games here.

The Filipinos unleashed their full force against the hapless Thais, scoring on each of the first seven innings to win the gold medal in eight innings.

Team manager Orlando Binarao credited the win to their vaunted offense.

“The boys played very inspired baseball today,” said Binarao after the victory at The Villages.

Indonesia routed Singapore, 10-4, to clinch the bronze medal.

In Clark, Pampanga, the Philippine Volcanoes lived up to expectation as they dominated the men’s division, while the Lady Volcanoes settled for second in the women’s class in the rugby 7s competition of the biennial meet at the Parade Grounds here on Sunday.

The Volcanoes blasted defending champion Malaysia, 19-0, to capture the gold medal in the men’s category.

This is the second time that the Volcanoes defeated the Malaysians in the finals after scoring a 24-7 triumph in the 2015 Singapore SEA Games before finishing fourth in the 2017 edition held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the Lady Volcanoes lost to Thailand, 7-17, in the women’s gold medal round.

The Lady Volcanoes, who saw action in two tournaments in China this year where it faced the top eight teams in Asia, earlier suffered a 7-38 setback against the Thais in the preliminaries.