Blu Girls foil Taiwanese, top Pool B

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Blu Girls continued their giant-killing ways, this time claiming the scalp of world No. 5 Chinese-Taipei, 11-7, to soar to the Bracket B top spot in the Canada Cup International Softball Championship in Surrey, Canada Wednesday.

Showing the spunk that enabled them to topple third-ranked host Canada (6-2) the day before, the Pinay softbelles unleashed a four-run spree in seventh inning and shut the Taiwanese out in the final at bat to complete the upset.

Chinese Taipei was already the fourth Top 10 team that fell to an ambush from  No. 17 Filipinas in two weeks. In the last week’s World Cup of Softball XII in Oklahoma, Phl IX pulled the rug from under No. 4 Australia and followed this up by upstaging No. 10 Mexico twice.

“After Australia, Mexico and Canada, we did it again,” said Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines operations manager Jun Veloso, whose wards now await their opponents in the quarterfinals.

Phl IX actually went up by as many as 7-1 against Chinese-Taipei after a five-run, six-hit outing in the top fifth. But it conceded five runs off five hits in the bottom inning and the game-tying run in the sixth and needed a big finishing kick to seal the deal.

“The Blu Girls are on a roll, proving that the Philippines can truly excel in softball. Our victory over powerhouse teams Canada, Australia, Chinese Taipei and Mexico show how our national team has greatly improved and is better equipped for the challenges of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” said Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier, who’s throwing his full support in the Blu Girls’ bid for the next Olympics.

Gabrielle Maurice and Kailee Cuico gave Phl a 9-7 cushion with back-to-back RBI doubles then Garie Blando belted a two-run homer to put more separation after the top seventh.

Jessica Lange and the defense then retired the Taiwanese side in the bottom play to hold on to their second straight win.