Lady batters wax hot in Asian debut

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (PABA) president Chito Loyzaga never expected the national women’s team to make a splash in its first-ever international competition at the ongoing second Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) Asian Cup in Guangdong, China. But after two games, coach Egay de los Reyes’ batters are safely in the four-team Super Round to start Wednesday.

The unranked Philippines is bracketed in Group B with World No. 3 Chinese-Taipei, World No. 8 South Korea and World No. 10 Hong Kong. Group A is made up of World No. 1 Japan, World No. 13 India, World No. 14 Pakistan and unranked China. Both China and the Philippines are unranked as this is their first international tournament. The top two finishers of each bracket in the preliminaries advance to the Super Group where the eventual No. 1 and No. 2 placers battle for the gold medal on Friday.

While Loyzaga never expected a splash, there was cause for celebration when the Philippines blasted Hong Kong, 12-3 last Saturday and trounced South Korea, 14-7, yesterday. The Philippines faces Chinese-Taipei today to decide pole position in Group B. Chinese-Taipei earlier defeated South Korea, 12-2.

“Our spectacular, courageous and dedicated Philippine women’s team has surprised the world of baseball by winning over Hong Kong and South Korea,” said Loyzaga. “If you believe, you can achieve.”

The Asian Cup is held every two years and is the qualifier for the 2020 Women’s Baseball World Cup, also a biennial competition where Japan has won the last six of eight championships.

Shortstop Esmeralda Tayag, a former national softball player, cracked four hits in four at-bats, scored three runs and had two RBIs in leading the charge against Hong Kong at the Panda Stadium. First base Charlotte Sales and third base Ghene Camral smacked four hits apiece in a blistering assault where the Philippines stormed back from a 0-3 deficit entering the fifth inning to register four runs each in the last three. Clariz Palma went the distance in throwing 104 pitches to 28 batters and posting 65 strikes to claim the win.

Against South Korea, the Philippines trailed, 0-3, 2-4 and 4-5 before breaking out with 10 runs in the top of the seventh inning. The Koreans threatened with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh but the Philippines surrendered only two more runs to close out the contest.