ILLAM blanks Guam, reaches Little League 11-12 World Series

International Little League Association of Manila (ILLAM) reaffirmed its mastery over Agana of Guam in an abbreviated 10-0 blanking yesterday to rule the Asia Pacific Little League Championship and earn its seat in the World Series 11-12 years old division at the Rosario Sports Complex in Pasig City.

There was no stopping the ILLAM ball swatters from claiming their first title win in the division via a sweep of the two teams’ best-of-three series from the time losing pitcher Juliana Santos walked seven of the first eight Filipina batters she met at the bottom of the first inning as they completely broke the nine-year dominance of the Bacolod City in the major category.

Five of the Filipinas Santos boarded on freebies crossed the plate that accounted for all the ILLAM runs in the period, with the exception of second base girl Ma. Isabel Trinidad, the second in the hosts’ murderers’ row who came up with the lone, a single to left.

Santos best exemplified the Guamanians, who were playing in their first tournament outside of their country, lack of international exposure as she filled the bases five times in the inning that lasted for half-an-hour and saw all ILLAM batters trip to the plate.

The Filipinas, a selection from the different private schools in the Metropolitan Manila cities Makati, Quezon and in Muntinlupa (Alabang), finished off the Guamanians three frames later with a four-run binge on the strength of a two-run single each by catcher Laura Lehman and shortstop Jasmine Singh, daughter of University of the Philippines assistant coach Raja Singh.

"Well, medyo hilaw na hilaw pa ang kalaban. Kailan lang naman kasi na-introduce ang girls softball sa Little League program nila. But still, I cannot take away the victory from our girls, who really played to win the championship and earn the right to represent the region in the World Series," Randy Dizer, head of ILLAM’s youth baseball and softball program, said.

"We’ve been in girls softball program for only two years and we really are not expecting to figure out much. But we’re learning and we hope that someday, we can be as good as the Philippines. The experience playing here will go a long way in the future," Guam delegation head John Wesley said.