Blu Girls yield to Japanese, face S'poreans in quarters

MANILA, Philippines - Defending champion Japan and the Philippines went through the motion of completing their elimination round campaign with the Japanese fashioning out a 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 topped Pool A on a perfect 6-0 win-loss record with the Filipinas 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.

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)..  

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 routed, 9-1, in the final of the 2007 SEA Games.

“We must win over Singapore to make it to the semifinal and have a crack at even third place,” coach Ana Santiago said in an overseas telephone interview after the Philippine-Japan setto.

The top three finishers in the tournament automatically gain berths to next year’s world championship, according to delegation head Randy Dizer.

The last time the Philippines played in the world championship was in tournament’s 1990 edition held in Normal, Illinois.