RP back on track, trips Botswana

SASKATOON, Canada – The Philippines held off surprisingly tough Botswana, 7-5, Wednesday to get back on track in its campaign to earn a slot in the quarterfinal round of the 2009 World Men’s Softball Championship here.

The Blu Boys, who could only manage six hits off a pair of Botswanan pitchers, exploited four errors by their rivals, two of them coming in the fourth inning that led to the marginal runs for their third win in six games.

The win set up the Blu Boys to a crucial showdown with Denmark in their bid to gain a berth in the quarterfinals and improve on their 10th place finish four years ago in Christchurch, New Zealand

A victory over the Danes will send the Filipinos in a possible tie for third and fourth places which will be broken by a tiebreak.

While the fate of the Blu Boys, who earned the trip here courtesy of Cebuana Lhuillier, Pera Padala, Le Soleil de Boracay, Phiten and the Philippine Sports Commission, hinges on the outcome of their encounter with the Danes, they also hope that Great Britain loses to the United States in a contest being played at press time.

Japan, meanwhile, meets unbeaten and Pool A leader New Zealand.

Fastball-throwing Roger Rojas surrendered six of Botswana’s 10 hits that produced two runs in a four-inning start and claimed the victory, his second in the series.

The Blu Boys actually started hot, scoring four runs in the third courtesy of a single each by third baseman Apol Rosales, rightfielder Orlando Binarao and centerfielder Manuel Binarao.