Japanese overwhelm RP batters

The Philippines rammed into a stronger Japan side as it absorbed a woeful 1-23 loss yesterday in Day 2 of the 2006 Asia Pacific Zone Pony Division Championship at the Sto. Niño grounds in Marikina City.

Masaya Itai blanked the hosts, represented by the International Little League Association of Manila (ILLAM), in the first three innings, then Masashi Orita took over and allowed three hits to close out the match and complete the rout.

Yusoke Kuroda, Inigo Olivares and Adrian Bernardo alternated on the mound but all failed to stop the awesome Japanese batters, who belted in a whopping 20 hits in this meet backed by Lotte Food Corp., Yellow Cab Pizza and PCSO.

The local batters, cheered on by a small but noisy crowd, sneaked in three hits, including one by the diminutive Sebastian Martinez-Miranda at the bottom of the fourth that scored Bernardo for the host country’s lone run.

"We had a bad start, a lot of errors," said RP team assistant coach Rajah Singh.

RP will shoot for a miracle of a win over defending champion Chinese Taipei, which smothered Russia, 11-0, at 10 a.m. to remain unscathed in two outings.

Japan, for its part, will gun for a second win against Russia, composed of a team from the southern city of Nahodka, at 1 p.m.

"We’ll try our best, maybe we’ll play big tomorrow (today)," said Singh.

The event is organized by Philippine Tot Baseball Foundation president Rodolfo "Boy" Tingzon Jr. and Marikina City through its Mayor Marides Fernando and supported by Asia Pacific Zone through its director Koichi Ohara of Japan. — Joey Villar