Manila softbelles open World Series bid vs Californians

DELAWARE – Team Manila-Philippines, the 2012 World Series Big League softball champion, will clash against USA West’s Antelope Valley, California, which already has a win, in one of four matches lined up at 3 p.m. today (3 a.m. Tuesday in Manila) in the 2015 edition of the prestigious event at the Layton Field of the sprawling Pyles Center here.  

The Asia-Pacific champions arrived Saturday in this warm but windy county of Sussex in high spirits even after a five-hour road trip from New York where they have been subjected to a number of grueling training sessions by the coaching staff led by head coach Anna Santiago, Sandy Barredo and Sheirylou Valenzuela in preparation for their bid to reclaim the world crown.

The Big City softbelles, composed of the best 18-under UAAP batters hand-picked from the University of Sto. Tomas, National University, University of the East, and defending UAAP champion Adamson University, are backed by Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, Philippine Airlines, and International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI).

 Four standout pitchers in veteran Mary Ann Antolihao of UST, as well as Riflayca Basa,  Arlyn Bautista and Princess Mae Jurado of Adamson University, will power Team Manila–Philippines, which has also been reinforced by catcher Maria Celestine Palma and third baseman Christy Joy Roa of UST, first baseman Florabelle Pabiania of Adamson, and outfielder and third baseman Shaira Damasing of NU.

They are all members of the Philippine Blu Girls that won the 2015 Singapore Southeast Asian Games softball championship.

“Our team was not bracketed among the series’ toughest, such as the two strong teams from host Delaware, one of them the defending champion, as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico,” said Manila Little League president and former councilor Rafael “Che” Borromeo.

“But we still need to stay focused and take this one game at a time. I believe that the girls can pull this one off, but of course we cannot be over confident and should still expect stiff competition,” added Borromeo, a senior executive assistant to Mayor Estrada.

Eight other regional champion teams seeing action are 2014 World Series Big League defending champion Millsboro–Delaware (Host Dist. 3),  Kent County–Delaware (USA East), San Juan–Puerto Rico (Latin America), South Bend–Indiana (USA Central), Antelope Valley–California (USA West), Morganton–North Carolina (USA Southeast), District 5–Louisiana (USA Southwest) and Milano, Italia (Europe/Africa).

The Manila batters will have a rest day Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) as their scheduled game was cancelled when Canada withdrew from the series. But they will have to beat Morganton–North Carolina on Aug. 5 and South Bend–Indiana on Aug. 6 in Pool A action to advance to the semifinals.