Team Manila ready for Asia Pacific, World Series tilts
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 08 Jul 2010
Only two remained in Team Manila?s Big League 2008 roster that won the Asia Pacific elimination and subsequently ended up runner up in the World Big League girls softball World series, but teaa officials believe this year?s lineup is a lot stronger and, therefore, capable of becoming the world?s finest softball squad in the 16-18 year bracket.
Jenny Pangilinan, the tiny but sensational Filipina hurler who wowed the spectators and opponents alike in the World Series held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is no longer around along with seven of her teammates who graduated to the women?s division, but head coach Filomeno ?Boy? Codinera, Manila Little League Charter chair Robert Evangelista coaching assistants Ana Santiago and Randy Dizer were one in diagnosing that this year?s Manila Golden Girls have more what it takes to stash away with both the Asia Pacific and World titles.
?I?m not talking about the Asia Pacific championship which is a cinch for us to win, ?Codinera said in reference to the Jakarta meet where the Manilenyas will meet the challenge of Indonesia and Pakistan. I?m talking here of the World Series.?
?For one, while in 2008 we had no more than three pitchers, this year we have seven whose strength are almost equal? the baseball/softball great Codinera said in reference to holdover hurler Erica Escanuela and new recruits Julie Marie Muyco, Annalie Benjamin, Rizza Bernardino Melanie Macatangay, Veronica Belleza and Amanda Amelia ?Bada? La ?O.
?Second, while these additional pitchers are new in the team, they are veterans of the World Series in the lower divisions while playing for their provincial teams and, therefore, not new to the World Series-caliber games,? he added. ?Besides, almost all of them are veteran campaigners in the UAAP. Kaya palagay namin sa coaching staff, this team can give, not only Manila but the country as well our first world crown in the girls softball 16-18 category.?
Santiago and Dizer agreed with the latter, who was the head mentor of the 2008 Golden Girls, adding that this year?s team is a lot tougher that its 2008 counterpart not only in pitching but in all other departments as well.
?With seven pitchers in our rotation, we have a very strong defensive battery. Not only that, malakas din ang hitting ng team na ito as proven many times in our tune up games against men?s teams,? Santiago who will also call the shots in the Philippine Blu Girls? stint in the Southeast Asian Softball championship late this month.
?We do not only play against men?s team, were are also winning. Iyon ang pinakamagandang maibabalita ko sa ?yo,? Santiago said rather boastfully. ?Yes, bihira ang tumatalo sa aming team ng lalaki.?
One other asset of the team, according to Dizer is no less than six members of the team have also been selected to the Blu girls line up.
They are Muyco, younger sister of once the Philippines? ace hurler, who is now in the United States, catcher Elvie Entrina, Ana Karissa Paghubasan, Bernardino, who when not pitching plays third, shortstop Marlyn Francisco and Belleza.
?Not everybody can be a member of the blu Girls and the fact that these guys have already earned their place in the national team at their young age, talagang may sinasabi,? Evangelista, an engineer in the city?s engineering department, butted in.
Other members of the team, which will be leaving Friday to Jakarta for the Asia Pacific tilt, are Isabel Gomez, Nerissa Benjamin, Yrla Rojo, the only other remnant of the 2008 fame who plays out of the Smokey Mountain, Cindy Carol Banay, Mariz Margaret Garde and Melanie Macatangay.
Of the World Series veterans, sisters Benjamin have the most number of appearances with five and four, respectively , while carrying the colors of Bacolod City from the Little League (11-12), Junior League (13-14), Senior League (14-16) and now Big League.
This will also be Banay?s fifth World Series appearance and fourth for Muyco and Francisco. Both Banay and Muyco are also from Bacolod, while Francisco is from Laguna.
Incidentally, Muyco, Escanuela, Nerissa Benjamin, Rojo, Banay, Entrina, Bernardino and Macatangay are mainstays of UAAP runner up Adamson University, while La?o is from Ateneo de Manila. Annalie Benjamin is from Aurollo National high School, Garde from University of the Philippines, Paghubasan from UAAP champion Santo Tomas, Francisco from University of the East and Belleza from the Rizal Technological University.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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