Blu Girls shut out host team, must win over Taiwan to reach semis

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Blu Girls got back on track and primed up for their stint in the 18th Asian Games Page System semis by shutting out host Indonesia, 4-0, yesterday at GBK Softball Field in Jakarta.

The Filipinas jumped the gun on the Indonesians and sent two runners home right in the opening inning to lay the foundation for the bounce-back victory coming off Tuesday night’s 1-11 setback to powerhouse Japan.

With a 4-1 win-loss slate, the Blu Girls occupied second spot at presstime behind the Japanese, who streaked to their fifth consecutive triumph with a 10-0 rout of Korea in the curtain raiser.

The routine disposal of the Indons warmed the Pinay softbelles up for their crucial preliminaries game against Chinese Taipei (also with 4-1) late Wednesday. The Filipinas need to beat the Taiwanese in order to clinch the No. 2 seed in the semis, which will assure them of a milestone bronze medal feat.

More importantly, the Top 2 positions offer two chances to make it to the gold medal match.

Under the Page System, the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked sides will contest the first finals berth. The loser will get another crack at the remaining championship seat against the winner of the other semis pairing between the third- and fourth-ranked teams.

The Blu Girls are aiming to improve on their fourth place finish in the 2014 Asiad and make it to the podium this time.

The Pinay belles are drawing confidence from their runner-up finish in the Asian Softball Championship last year in Taiwan. In that tourney, fourth-seeded Phl IX toppled No. 3 China (4-3) and No. 2 Chinese-Taipei (5-3) to earn the right to challenge No. 1 Japan for the crown.