3 Philippine squads advance to Little League Softball World Series

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines qualified three teams to Little League Softball World Series after sweeping the Asia Pacific Regionals over the weekend in Singapore.

Negros Occidental lorded it over in the Little League (12-U) and Junior League Softball (14-U) divisions while Tanauan dominated Senior League (16-U) play as the Pinay softbelles completed a clean sweep of the Aspac for the second straight year.

The Negrense Little Leaguers bested host Singapore in three games, 28-0, 15-0, 20-0, to handily retain the diadem and book a return trip to the LLS World Series slated Aug. 8-15 in Portland.

Their junior counterparts dished out a dominant show of force, too, beating Singapore, 17-0, and Australia, 5-4, in the elims then crushing the Aussies in the finals, 10-0, to go back-to-back and once more earn the right to represent Aspac in the JLS worlds on July 29-Aug. 4 in Kirkland, Washington. Negros is out to duplicate, if not surpass, its silver medal feat in the 2017 WS.

Not to be outdone, Tanauan secured the seniors diadem with a perfect record, throwing its weight around Singapore, 16-0, Australia, 10-0, and China, 8-1, in the elims before claiming the first finals seat with a 10-1 drubbing of the Chinese and finally sealing the deal with a 10-0 wipeout of China in the finals. The Tanauan softbelles shift their focus on the SLS World Series set July 30-Aug. 5 in Lower Sussex, Delaware.

Meanwhile, Philippine's representative to the four baseball divisions, Tanauan, look to duplicate the feat in the ongoing AsPac meets.

The Pinoy batters are battling the region's best in the world series-qualifiers in Seoul for the centerpiece majors division and intermediate 50/70 and at the Villages in Clark for the juniors and seniors categories.