Powerhouse Kiwis halt Blu Boys

SASKATOON, Canada – The Philippines rammed into powerhouse defending champion New Zealand and took a stinging 8-1 setback in five innings in the XII World Men’s Softball Championship at the Bob Van Impe Stadium here Sunday.

The Kiwis, winners of this quadrennial tournament in 1996, 2000 and 2004, stamped their class early, spraying losing pitcher Vic Enriquez with three hits for a five-run binge to virtually settle the outcome right on top of the opening frame.

Gregorio Marquez relieved Enriquez in the second but yielded three more runs before Marlon Pagkaliwagan held his own in a three-inning relief.

It was the Blu Boys first loss after nipping Great Britain, 4-3, and trouncing Mexico, 7-4.

If any consolation, the Blu Boys became the first team to score a run against the Kiwis, who opened their title drive with a pair of shutout victories over the US (15-0) in five innings and Great Britain (14-0) in four over the weekend.

Thanks to third baseman Apol Rosales, who belted a three-base hit at the bottom of the first inning against winning pitcher Shaanon Heinie.

Rosales, a veteran of two World Championships and Southeast Asian Games and Asian Championships, slammed Heinie’s breaking ball into deep right-center field to reach third base. 

After giving up his team’s first hit, Heinie was then called for an illegal pitch opposite rightfielder Orlando Binarao and allowed Rosales to score.

Binarao came back in the fourth and tagged Heinie with a double but the Blu Boys failed to translate this into a run.

The Blu Boys, whose campaign is backed by Cebuana Lhuiller, Pera Padala, Le Soleil de Boracay, Phiten and the Philippine Sports Commission, thus fell into a two-way tie for second with the US and Japan in Pool A behind the Kiwi’s 3-0 slate. They take on the Americans today.

Despite the setback, Amateur Softball Association-Philippines head Jean Henri Lhuiller commended the Blu Boys, saying: “You did the country proud by having the honor of becoming the first team so far to have scored against the four-peat seeking Kiwis.”