Host Tanauan starts big in Li’l League

TANAUAN CITY, Batangas, Philippines – Home team Tanauan City got off to a blazing start as three of its teams hurdled their opening assignments yesterday in the Little League Philippines Series 2013 here.

Tanauan’s reigning title-holders in Senior League Baseball highlighted the host’s Day One rampage with an 18-7 drubbing of neighbor Lipa in Group B action in Barangay Sala.

The Tanaueños scored a 19-3 rout of Bulacan in Big League Baseball hostilities in an adjacent field in the same venue offering a magnificent view of Mt. Makiling while their bets in Little League Baseball fashioned out a 16-0 rout of Canlubang in South Luzon Region play over in Barangay Bagumbayan.

The defending titlists also posted big wins on opening day with ILLAM scoring a merciless 31-2 massacre of Quezon City in Junior League Baseball Group B hostilities at City High grounds and Muntinlupa hammering a 14-1 demolition of North Cebu in Big League Baseball over at Barangay Sala.

In a match between two neighboring teams played before a good-sized crowd, Tanauan’s Senior League baseballers turned to their hot bats and solid defense to break away in the fifth and sixth innings. 

They exploded with seven runs off five hits in the fifth frame and added four more runs in the next while holding Lipa off with an easy 1-2-3 and a pair of flyouts sandwiching a strikeout on the defensive end to score the big triumph. Tanauan had 15 hits overall against Lipa and pounced on the latter’s seven errors to benefit in their matchup in the 15-16 age bracket.

Similarly off to a rousing opening in Senior League Group B was ILLAM, which shellacked Quezon City, 31-6.

Paulo Macasaet and Miguel Dumlao slammed a home run each in the first inning while Rapho Balagtas and Gabriel Esguerra blasted round-trippers of their own in the second and fourth, respectively, to set the tone for the rout. 

Muntinlupa’s Senior Leaguers also blitzed past their first-day rival, Canlubang, 20-5, to take the upperhand over in Group A.

In Junior League Baseball Group A, Lipa Barakitos nipped Zambales, 4-2, while Marikina won over a Pamplona team that conceded the one-sided match, 7-0. Muntinlupa won over Lipa City, 7-0, over in Junior League Baseball Group B.

Lipa Barakitos’ Senior League Baseball crew won by default over Pasig, 7-0, in their morning Group B match that spilled over to the afternoon while Zamboanga and Camarines Norte booked 6-0 wins over Ragay and BAAO, respectively, in Little League Baseball’s Bicol/Visayas/Mindanao elims at Laurel Field. 

Sta. Cruz trounced GK Smokey Mountain, 8-4, to start off action in Senior League Softball in Barangay Natatas.