Danes boot Blu Boys out of quarters

SASKATOON,Canada – The Philippines lost a heartbreaking 2-0 decision to Denmark and the Blu Boys failed to advance into the quarterfinal round of the XII World Men’s Softball Championship here.

The Blu Boys ended their Pool A elimination round campaign with a 3-4 win-loss slate, the same card submitted by Great Britain and Denmark, but the Englishmen made it into the Final Eight on a better quotient in the runs-for, runs-against tiebreak.

The three-way tie ensued after the Englishmen, bowed to Botswana, 5-1, in a game held after the RP-Denmark tiff.

The Blu Boys, whose participation here was made possible by Cebuana Lhuillier, Pera Padala, Le Soleil de Boracay, Phiten and Philippine Sports Commission, beat the British in the opening day a week ago, 4-3, but the Londoners beat the Danes, 7-0, and edged the RP team in the tiebreak as the Filipinos yielded four runs as against Britain’s five.

The British, who ended up a notch ahead of the Filipino four years ago in this tournament in ninth place, thus, joined Pool A leader and defending champion New Zealand (7-0), the US (6-1) and Japan (4-3) into the knockout system quarterfinal round where the four teams in the field of eight will advance into the semifinal round.

Canada, runner-up in 2004 in Christchurch, New Zealand, matched the Kiwis sweep of their group to lead qualifiers in Pool B that will include Australia (6-1), Venezuela (4-3) and Argentina (4-3).

With their 4-3 slate, which was already an improvement of their 2-5 card four years ago, the Blu Boys could end up eighth or ninth when the official team standings are announced.

The Filipinos had the hits – five against six by the Danes, but just could not translate them into markers.

This was because Jesper Panduro, who manned the mound all by himself in the entire seven-inning encounter, struck out 15 of the Filipino batters that crossed his path, while losing pitcher Roger Rojas, who also played without relief, only had three kills.

The game was close with Panduro and Rojas battled each other to scoreless spell until the sixth inning where the Danes scored all their runs at the lower half of the period as Rojas started to falter

sdThe Filipinos’ five connections came courtesy of catcher jasper Cabrera on a single in one-of-three plate appearances, reightfielder Orlando Binarao,single also on one-of-three designated hitter Isidro Abello, single on one-of-three and first baseman Darius Bacarisas, double on one-of-three.