Iloilo belles smother Canadians

MANILA, Philippines - Asia-Pacific representative Iloilo Province finally got into the rhythm and hacked ou five-inning 24-4 rout over Canada to boost its quarterfinal chances in the 2013 Junior League Softball World Series in Kirkland, Washington Tuesday night (early Wednesday in Manila).

The Ilongga clouters peppered Paige Shaw and Sara Stiller with a combined 13 hits to pull off the easy win, their first after a 0-2 start in Pool A hostilities. This, coupled with the Canadian team from Windsor South’s 0-3 card, gave the Filipinas the inside track in the two squads’ race for the Last-8 berth. 

Unlike in the other divisions where only Top 2 in each pool advanced to the cross over semis, only one in each of the five-team pool will be eliminated while the Top 4 move on to the knockout quarters.

Iloilo will try to make it two in a row Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) against Central (1-2).

Flora Satorre led Iloilo’s offensive onslaught with a home run-spiked four RBIs plus three runs. Clarissa Lozada batted in four runs while Kate Teves and Percy Lorca slammed three and two RBIs, respectively.

Beverlyn Velasco issued a two-hitter and struck out five batters while giving up one run in three innings. Teves relieved her and yielded one hit and three runs.

Iloilo immediately seized a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never relented, unloading a seven-run spree capped by Teves’ triple in the third inning, adding four more runs in the fourth and capping its fiery offense with Satorre’s three-run homer in the fifth.

Meanwhile, the International Little League Association of Manila (ILLAM) fell to its second straight setback in the Senior League Baseball World Series Pool B play following a 0-11 loss to USA West over in Bangor, Maine.

ILLAM surrendered 10 hits to the squad from Pearl City, Hawaii and failed to crack the pitching of Brandon Henderson, who extinguished six batter in a three-hitter performance over four shutout innings. Henderson also struck at bat, hitting an RBI triple that helped Pearl City score four runs in the sixth to make it 11-0.