BluGirls lose to Japan but claim quarterfinal slot
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 26 Sep 2011
Defending champion Japan and the Philippines merely went into the motion of ending their elimination round campaign with the Japanese fashioning out a routine 5-1 victory over the Blu Girls Sunday in the 10th Asian Women?s Softball Championship at the Ciaoguang field in Nantou, Taiwan.
With World no. 1 pitcher Yotiko Ueno starting for the reigning Olympic champion, the Japanese formalized their grip of the top spot in Pool A on a perfect 6-0 win-loss record and seeing the Filipinas, likewise, officially claiming the last of four slots in their group entering the quarterfinal round of the two-group, 13-team field.
The Blu Girls, once ranked third in the world, ended up with a 4-4 card behind the Japanese, the South Koreans (5-1) and the North Koreans (4-2), were to face Singapore in one of the four-game, crossover knockout page-system quarterfinal round schedule late Monday afternoon to determine the composition of the Final Four.
The Singaporeans (3-2), at whose expense the Filipinas defended the Southeast Asian Games crown four years ago in Thailand, emerged the third qualifier in Pool B along with no. 1 team China (5-0), host Chinese Taipei (4-1) and another Southeast Asian nation Indonesia (1-2).
Softball was not played in the 2009 SEA Games in Laos due to lack of a suitable venue.
The Japanese, who are also the runner up to the United States in the last world championship, were to battle the Taiwanese also at Ciaoguang , while the Chinese and the South Koreans, as well the North Koreans and the Indonesians were to eliminate each other at the Derhsin playing field.
The Blu Girls, three-time silver medalists in this tournament that started in 1967, are odds on picks to survive the Singaporeans, whom they massacred, 9-1, in the final of the 2007 SEA Games.
?Kailangan manalo tayo sa Singapore para makapasok sa semifinal round at magkaroon ng tsansa na lumaban kahit sa third place,? Coach Ana Santiago said in an overseas telephone interview after the Philippine-Japan setto.
??Paborito tao sa labang ito, pero hindi dapat magkumpiyansa dahiul malaki ang nakataya sa labang ito, ang pumasok na muli ang Pilipinas sa world championship,? she added.
?Top three lang kasi ang kukunin para makalaro sa world championship next year at yun ang pagtutuunanan naming ng pansin, ang ma-qualify sa world championship na matagal na nating hindi na-i-ekspiriyensa,? delegation head Randy Dizer, butted in,
The last time the Philippines played in the world championship was in tournament?s 1990 edition held in Normal, Illinois.
Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier, whose business empire ? Cebuana Lhuillier, Pera Padala, Le Soleil de Boracay and Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions ? is funding the Blu Girls trip here along with the Philippine Sports Commission, exhorted the girls to play well and make to into the Final Four.
?I know you can survive Singapore, but just the same play your best so we will have a chance to the medal play and make it into the world championship,? Lhuillier said in a text message to the Girls through Dizer.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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