The Philippines have never been as close to realizing that dream since 12 years ago. This young gutsy team has already copped the SEAYBST (Southeast Asia Youth Baseball and Softball Tournament) Championship by beating Perth, Singapore, and Jakarta in 2004, for the first time.
They have also ruled the Little League Nationals recently held in Tanauan establishing themselves as the best in the country in their age group of 12 years and under.
Against determined competition, and amid the persistent dust tornados of this Batangas town, the International Little League Association of Manila Mariners, managed by Arsenic Laurel, powered their way through a field of 28 teams to become national champions. While the outcome was sweet, the work had been hard.
After scoring a deluge of runs and pummeling every team they faced in the preliminary round, the Mariners made their mark early in the tournament. But the competition intensified in the semi-finals, and one of the toughest hurdles was in the game against the well-trained Bulacan team. This was a game to prove the Mariners’ mettle: A closely fought battle that went into extra innings, holding the bleachers in suspense from beginning to end.
The game started early on a hot April morning. Bulacan wasted no time buckling down to work. They hammered out five quick runs. The intensity of Bulacan’s offense was arrested by Patrick Reed’s pitching, who struck out two batters to end the Bulacan rally. After the rough start, all Mariner thoughts of the championship round were temporarily shelved. The team first had to get through this storm. They had led in every game of the tournament, and now they were down by five. If they were to advance, they would have to dig deep within themselves to see if they indeed had the hearts of champions. The next few innings gave them the answer.
At the top of the second inning, the Mariners’ bats began to heat up. Chris Arcilla started the comeback with a home run, which was followed by a Mark Ong single and a Patrick Reed double. With two runs scored, the momentum started to swing. Sensing this, Bulacan’s ace, Santa Ana, bore down and struck out the next batter. But the effort wouldn’t be enough. With two outs and two runners on base, the Mariners’ Adrian Bernardo hit the inning’s second home run and tied the game at five. This blast was quickly followed by a Bobby Domingo home run that put the Mariners ahead by a score of 6-5. The Mariners managed to hold the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Patrick Reed then hammered a two-run home run. Showing that his team was still in the game, Bulacan’s superstar Santa Ana retaliated with his own home run. While the rest of the Bulakeños were retired with no further damage, one message was clear: Bulacan had every intention of coming back.
At the start of the fourth inning, Santa Ana struck out three to put the Mariners down in order. Santa Ana’s expertise on the mound was followed up on offense by his teammate, Cunanan, who stroked Bulacan’s second home run, bringing his team to within one.
At the top of the fifth inning, seeming to gather steam as the game went on, Santa Ana again put the Mariners down in order. When Bulacan took its turn at bat, Dela Cruz smashed a line-drive home run that tied the game at eight.
The sixth inning appeared to be the last chance for the Mariners. Knowing this, Bulacan’s Santa Ana came out throwing hard. He quickly put the first two batters away on strikes, but walked the third. The Mariners’ Adrian Bernardo singled, nearly bringing the go-ahead run home. But the run was not to be, and the Mariners headed into the bottom of the sixth knowing that they had to hold Bulacan scoreless if they were going to push the game into extra innings.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Patrick Reed, who was still pitching for the Mariners, walked the first batter. With the possible winning run on first base and the Bulacan fans in full volume, the next batter struck out; the batter, a Bulacan slugger who had homered in his last appearance, grounded out; and the last batter flied out. The threat was silenced, and the game went into extra innings.
The Mariners took advantage of the second pitcher of Bulacan by sneaking in a three-run lead, and the Mariners were just three outs away from advancing to the semifinals when they took the field behind their third pitcher of the day, Mark Christian Ong. With the hopes of his team riding on his shoulders, Mark Ong faced the strength of Bulacan’s lineup, including two players who had hit home runs earlier. Rising to the challenge, he retired the side in order, striking out one and retiring the next two on ground balls. The Mariners won. The final score was 8-11.
Steeled by their quarterfinal battle, the Mariners worked their way through the semifinal and championship rounds with relative ease. And, in the process, they earned the right to represent the Philippines at the Little League Regional Championship tournament, which will be held in Guam this July.
It’s not often that a team of 12 year olds gets the chance to follow a dusty provincial road to a shot at the Little League World Series, but it is happening this year. What started in Tanauan could continue in Guam and culminate in Pennsylvania. If it does, we’ll be proud to welcome home not just a group of world champions, but destiny’s children.