ILLAM bounces back, blanks Rizal nine

MANILA, Philippines - Pitchers Erica Escanuela and Jenny Pangilinan recorded a one-hit wonder yesterday as International Little League Association of Manila (ILLAM) blanked Rizal, 2-0, in their Big League softball encounter at the Rizal Memorial track stadium.

Escanuela and Pangilinan, key players in Team Manila’s strong runner-up finish in last year’s Big League World Series in Michigan, helped ILLAM nail its second win in three games, the same record of Rizal, in this two-day old Philippine Series for 2009.

Erica Abello and Alex Zuluaga delivered homers for ILLAM, which bounced back from a 3-0 loss to Laguna the other day.

“Every game is like a championship game. We lost our last game on homeruns and now we won ours on homeruns, too,” said ILLAM coach Ana Santiago.

The ILLAM victory was the highlight of the day, which had 1,300 players from 94 teams competing in the Little League (11-12 years old), Junior League (13-14), Senior League (14-16) and Big League (16-18) for boys’ baseball and girls’ softball.

ILLAM also scored in Big League baseball as it trounced Taguig, 27-5. Tanauan defeated Makati, 6-0, and Northern Samar outlasted Camarines Norte, 8-2.

With so many players, the organizing Little League Philippines under district administrator Jolly Gomez and executive director Chito Gonzalez has tapped eight venues for the tournament to be played until Sunday and under the blazing sun.

Games are being held at the Rizal Memorial diamond, the Rizal Memorial track stadium, PUP, Luneta, Santo Tomas, Rizal High in Pasig, Sto. Niño in Marikina and the Smokey Mountain.

Gomez said a field was painstakingly constructed at Smokey Mountain, the vast garbage dump in Tondo, Manila. He said bulldozers were used to flatten a growing dump in the area, and was later topped with 20 truckloads of soil.    – Abac Cordero