Japanese overwhelm Blu Boys

SASKATOON, Canada – The Philippines bowed to Japan, 5-0, Tuesday and now faced the tough job of winning its last two Pool A elimination round assignments to advance to quarterfinal round of the 2009 World Men’s Softball championship here.

The Japanese pummeled rookie Leo Barredo and veteran Roger Rojas with 12 hits while ace hurler Tatsuya Hamaguchi worked on a three-hit, no run six-inning job before yielding the mound to Kunihiko Yamaguchi to seal the win over the Blu Boys.

 The duo combined with 13 strikeouts.

The Japanese scored two runs in the second inning through solo homers by Hiraku Yokohama and shortstop Ryuji Hazeyama off the lefty Barredo.

The Cebuana Lhuillier-sponsored Blu Boys put up a scoring threat in the third by loading the bases but Oscar Bradshaw failed to send any of his three teammates home.

The Blu Boys, whose participation here was supported by Pera Padala, Le Soleil de Boracay, Phiten and the Philippine Sports Commission, face Botswana Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) and Denmark the following day, and hope to prevail in the two matches to advance to the Final 8.

Botswana remained winless after five games, losing to the Uniteds States, 2-1, also Tuesday. The Danes, like the Filipinos, were defeated by Pool A leader New Zealand, 16-0, in an abbreviated four-inning contest.

The loss dropped the RP team to a tie at fifth place with the Danes, both with identical 2-3 win-loss records.

After five days of play, the three-time defending champion New Zealand led Pool A with a clean 5-0 slate to virtually earn a place in the quarterfinal, followed by the Americans (4-1) and the Japanese.

 In Pool B, play, meanwhile, host Canada, matched New Zealand’s 5-0 mark by beating Venezuela, 5-4. Australia remained in second at 4-1 by handing Indonesia its fifth loss on a 1-0 victory in only five innings.