San Miguel, Woodrose topple high school softball rivals

MANILA, Philippines - Fancied San Miguel, Bulacan charged back to beat Valenzuela, 16-6, while Woodrose School ripped Tuguegarao City, 5-0, in the third day of action in the 2015 National Inter-Secondary Girls Softball Championships at the Sto. Niño Baseball Field in Marikina yesterday.

San Miguel struggled early with their offense and wavered in defense, yielding three runs in the first inning. It still trailed, 2-5, after three but countered in the next two frames behind Miracle Balogna and Georgete Fernandez, who keyed the team’s five-run binge in the fourth and a seven-run charge in the fifth while holding their rivals to just one run the rest of the way to fashion out the win.

Meanwhile, Asaphil (Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines) and Cebuano Lhuillier kicked off the 2015 Inter-Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Softball Championships in Baguio City yesterday with 10 teams participating in each side with Indonesia spicing up the women’s action.

“The National intercollegiate tournament has been a source of outstanding talents for our national teams the past years. I expect it to continue to do so this year, which promises to be an exciting and competitive one with the presence of a foreign guest team. “said Asaphil president and Cebuana Lhuillier President and CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier.

Like San Miguel, Woodrose groped for form early, scoring just one run after four innings but pounced on Tuguegarao’s miscue in the fifth to score three runs before making another run in the seventh while shutting down their rivals all throughout with their solid defense.

It was Woodrose School’s third win against one loss to trail Manila City (4-1) and Sta. Maria, Bulacan (3-0) in Bracket B while Makati City continues to pace Bracket A with a 5-0 card followed by San Mateo and Miriam College with 4-0 and 3-1 cards, respectively.

The tournament, aimed at discovering and developing talents who could be trained for future national pool, stakes P25,000 to the champion with the second and third placers receiving P15,000 and P10,000, respectively.