R.P. Team Targets Senior League World Series Baseball Crown
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 16 Jul 2013
MANILA (PNA) -- A team, the nucleus of which has been playing together for five years, will be carrying the country?s and Asia Pacific?s colors in the coming 2013 Senior League World Series for boys baseball 15-16 age bracket set Aug. 11-17 in Bangor, Maine.
Playing under the banner of the International Little League Association of Manila (ILLAM), the team according to team manager (head coach) Arsenic Laurel, is the best his organization has ever assembled and, ergo, possessing the best chance of bringing home the gold medal at stake in its division.
?Having the long experience of representing the country in the Asia Pacific elimination for the World Series the past five years, we at ILLAM believe that this selection of the finest players in the secondary level has what it takes to give the Philippines a reason to be proud by joining Bacolod City and Manila as world champion, too,? Laurel projected during Friday?s SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura.
Laurel was referring to the feats fashioned out by Bacolod, which gifted the country its first World Series championship in the Junior bracket (13-14) of girls softball in 2003 and Manila, which duplicated the heroics last year in the Big League (16-18) class.
Manila, meanwhile, will be defending its World Series plum in its side of the world tourney scheduled early next month in Portland, Oregon. Team Laguna and Team Iloilo will also be vying fot the World Series titles in the Major League (11-12) in Portland, Oregon and Junior League (13-14) in Kirkland, Washington.
Laurel looked to have reasons to be overly optimistic in his team?s chances.
Eleven of his 15-man squad can man the mound and play multiple other positions -- Vicente Manuel Laurel Barandiaran, Alphonso Miguel Taylor Balagtas, Masaaki Iwasaki, the team manager?s son Daniel Jaime Santamaria Laurel, Juan Diego De Los Santos Lozano, Ignacio Tinsay Lozano, Marco Luis Bautista Mallari, Juan Alvaro Bernabe Macasaet, Antonioi Koji Suzuki Ozaeta and Joshua Ryan Cruz Salinas.
Not only that, besides Joaquin Vicente Francisco Bilbao, his regular catcher, Balagtas can also backstop and plays second and third. Same with Macasaet, who can hold his own in the other side of battery.
Incidentally, only Rafael Baclig Esguerra, son of businessman-sportsman Hermie Esguerra, who plays outfild, Juan Miguel Alfonso Albert Habana, outfielder, and right field boy Gabriel Teodoro Dario Esguerra, are not pitching.
Barandian, ILLAM?s top hurler, also earns his keep at third, Eala at short and second, Iwasaki at outfield, Laurel at short, De Los Santos Lozano at first and outfuield, Tinsay Lozano at third, Mallari at outfield, Ozaeta at first and outfield and Salinas at outfield.
?With our boys? versality, I think their sacrifices the past five years will finally be rewarded with a World Series championship,? the elder Laurel said adding that his coaching staff includes former UAAP standout Matt Laurel, Larry Icban and Bong Urian.
This the first time that ILLAM had gone past the Aspac eliminations having lost to Taiwan in the Major League (11-12) and Junior (13-14) each time its batters made it to the finals.
To toughen up leading to the World Series, the ILLAM IX, which swept the recent Asia Pacific elims held at the Clark Freeport Zone a week ago, will playing opposite collegiate teams of the UAAP ? reigning champ Ateneo, La Salle, University of the Philippines, National University, University of Santo Tomas and Adamson University the elder Laurel said.
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