Team Manila guns for Girls Softball World Series title
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 10 Aug 2011
Team Manila dropped a five-hit, four-run bomb in the seventh and last inning to take a dramatic, come-from-behind 8-7 thriller over Latin American champion Puerto Rico Tuesday (Monday in Manila) and advance into the playoff for the Big League 16-18) girls softball World Series championship at the Vanderbilt Park in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Rightfielder Annalie Benjamin emerged the biggest star in that crucial seventh frame when she singled in two runs that capped the Manilenyas? long, three-inning rally from 0-4 down to end their elimination round campaign with a 7-2 win-loss card that tied them with the Grand Rapids of host State Michigan and host city of Kalamazoo.
Benjamin?s line shot that hit the left fence wall of the Wilson field, sent winning pitcher Veronica Belleza and first base girl Bernardino scampering across the plate, the former tying the count, 7-all, and the latter providing the go-ahead winning run. Coach Randy Dizer?s girls took the top spot though by virtue of winning over both teams ? 4-1 over the defending champion Grand Rapids and 10-1 over Kalamazoo in the qualifying round.
The Manilenyas will have a chance to avenge their 2010 predecessors? loss to Grand Rapids when they meet in the gold medal play Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) in a 5 p.m. (2 a.m. in Manila) winner-take-all showdown for all the marbles.
?Kami na naman,? assistant coach Ana Santiago, the architect of last year?s Team Manila silver medal finish and that of 2008, too, quipped. ?Sana naman makaganti na tayo, lagi na lang runner up.? And unless the defending titlists possess a secret weapon in their pitching rotation, it looks like the Filipinas have an advantage in this department after Grand Rapids had to survive a pair of final elimination round assignments utilizing their top hurlers that paved the way for their title encounter with the two-time silver medalists.
The Filipinas, in fact, had Puerto Rican team from San Juan City to thank for in climbing from the brink of elimination to where they stand now. The Puerto Ricans bested Grand Rapids, 5-4, earlier in the day before the host State contingent came back to oust Laurel of Delaware, 5-1, to stay in the hunt for the crown.
And the Grand Rapids will be facing the Manilenyas? five heroines in their murderous seventh inning last ditch attack , not only at the plate but on the mound as well as Dizer told Malaya Business Insight he will be starting with right-hand throwing Bernardino with the lefty Benjamin standing by if needed the relief.
Bernardino matched Benjamin?s two runs batted in heroics in that period with a base-hit that drove home teammates Joy Parilla, who plays center, and Michelle Lentija, the second base girl. Both had earlier boarded on a single each against starting pitcher Gabriela Andino, in the process cutting Michigan?s lead to 7-6.
Bernardino?s and Benjamin?s game-winning hits were fashioned out off reliever Karla Claudio, who although pitching for only a fraction of an inning was accredited with the loss.
The Puerto Ricans strted like there was no tomorrow, blasting in a run right at the top of the first when Belleza hit Claudio by a plitched ball on a full bases situation, three runs in the third and fourth for what looked like an insurmountable 4-0 edge.
They led 7-4 going into the bottom of the seventh before Parzilla, Lentija, Belleza, Bernardino and Benjamin took matters in their own hands.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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