Team Manila keeps World Series crown

MANILA, Philippines — Team Manila-Philippines capped its dominant campaign in the PONY World Series 18-U Girls Softball Championship with a 5-1 romp over Central Hemet Xplosion, completing its back-to-back title romp at the Diamond Valley Park in the Valley-Wide Recreation District in Hemet, California Sunday.

Alma Tauli turned in another superb outing on the mound, coming through with eight strike outs, five no-run innings and a couple of defensive stops to power the Filipinas past the 2016 champions whom they also toppled in last year’s finale.

Earlier, hurler Glory Alonzo took center stage as she came through with 11 strike outs and five no-run innings in leading the Big City softbelles to an 11-0 rout of the Riverside County Lady Laces in their semifinal faceoff.

The romp included a homerun each by shortstop Angelu Gabriel and outfielder Alexandria Romero-Salas plus a brilliant two-run homer play by Gabriel. 

In the finals, Team Manila and the Hemet Xplosion battled it through two scoreless innings before Gabriel and second baseman Mary Joy Maguad scored a run each on top of the third off base hits by first baseman Cleofe Magsayo and Romero-Salas.  

Khisha Cantor, the 18-year-old veteran from Adamson and member of the champion team in last year’s PONY World Series, made a two base hit, stole third and made a run off an RBI by catcher Aliza Pichon for a 3-1 lead on top of the fourth.

Tauli yielded a homerun to the Hemet Xplosion’s Hillary Smith at the bottom of the fourth aided by the host city team’s top pitcher Dianne Lopez, who made five strike outs and two no-run innings, to the delight of the big hometown crowd.

But cat-quick Maguad, the 18-year-old native of Candoni, Negros Occidental and veteran of the 2017 Junior World Championship and World Series, came up with two stolen bases and a run off a catching error that silenced the crowd at the top of the fifth.

The Hemet Xplosion tried to fight back at the bottom of the sixth with three base hits but Tauli calmly responded with a couple of strike outs and defensive stops to close out the match – and the championship – at 5-1.

The Big City Softbelles also won the Crown in the 2012 Big League 18-U World Series for the first time in history and were voted as the 2012 Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Athletes of the Year and 2017 Major Awardee.