Softball wants all bases covered

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — An aggressive national program must be put in place back home if the Philippines would ever cope with the tremendous trend in world softball.

This was the assessment made by officials and members of the Blu Boys following their joint ninth place finish in the 15-nation XI men’s world championship which entered its medal round this weekend.

The morning after closing its stint in the meet where the Philippines was a traditional power in the late 60s and early 70s, the Blu Boys took stock of things and reflected on their two wins and five losses in the tough section of the elims. The RP team ended up tied with South Africa and Venezuela for joint ninth ahead of the Netherlands (1-6) and Great Britain ( 2-4), Botswana ( 1-5 ) and Hong Kong (0-6) in pool B with lesser games played.

"We are happy with what we have accomplished but there’s work to be done when we get home, from restructuring our national team to initiating a national identification program," said ASA Phil president Rep. Harry Angping.

The immediate task is to form a highly-competitive team good for the gold in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in Manila and a long range one geared toward a decent finish in the next world championship in 2009.

The Blu Boys were in serious contention for the last quarterfinal berth in the stellar pool A despite a sputtering start and went through a losing stand in sudden death with Samoa (0-6) before bowing out of softball’s world series.

Hitting their stride after three straight losses to Australia (1-2), Venezuela (1-8) and Canada (0-8), which shocked defending champ New Zealand (5-4) at the close of the qualifiers, the Filipinos brawled their way out of the cellar with victories over South Africa (9-6) and the Netherlands (6-1) in their finest moments in the series.

The 21-year-old Melvin Villegas best typified the Blu Boys’ comeback when he emerged joint seventh overall among leading world series batters in six games with .500 batting average. The graduating student at PUP had five hits in 10 times at bat including three-for-three against the Dutch.

But the Filipinos groped for form in the contest that mattered most and lost to the Samoans, 0-6, under finger-numbing cold in Diamond 2 of the world-class venue.

There were factors to consider. The inability to acclimatize early and adjust to the playing conditions, the shortage of personnel and a pitching rotation wanting in depth simply stymied the Filipinos. Then there was the Group of Death.

While the trend in pool B was established early, there was a wild wild race for the quarterfinals in the A section as Venezuela, Samoa and the Philippines mixed it up to the very end.

But RP head coach Reynaldo Manzanares refused to be drawn into this equation and insisted that the Blu Boys found themselves in trouble by their undoing.

"We played lousy early and committed a lot of errors against Venezuela and that basically did us in. Di sana umabot sa ganoong hirap na situasyon kung maagang nanalo," he said.

He also noted that the softball back home must have its own facility with a standard at par with the rest of the world, including a bare or "skinned" diamond like the one in Smokefree made of crushed lime. The facility at the Rizal ballpark, where the Asian qualifier was held, was made of grass.

"Iba ang laro sa ganitong diamond, mabilis ang pace ng bola," said skipper Fidel Moncera, a veteran of four world championships.

And while most of the teams came in two weeks in advance to acclimatize and play in tune-up tournaments here and in Aukland like in the case of Venezuela, the Netherlands, Japan and Argentina, the Filipinos were uncertain to go because of airline booking problems.

They arrived here a day before the event.

"Kulang sa exposure sa ganitong klaseng laro where a single error could be costly and where pitching is a premium," said assistant coach Eupring dela Cruz, himself a reserve hurler for the RP side.

There’s a growing trend among the powerhouse teams to develop tall pitchers with a power jump throw, left-handed hitters and southpaw hurlers with average 124-kph throw.

"We will consider all these and work out a program back home, identify and select young talents in the provinces and bring them in for all-out development," Angping said.

He added: "We are proud of what we have done here. Despite our limitations we managed to leave an impact on our tough group and we will pursue our mission to form competitive teams and to do well in the world series, this way we may be able to leave an imprint on Philippine softball."