THE Cebuana Lhuillier-backed Philippine Blu Girls reasserted anew its dominance in the region and closed out its campaign in the 30th SEA games with an abbreviated 5-inning, 8-0 victory over Indonesia in the finals to cop the gold and extend its streak to 10 straight Southeast Asian Games’ titles.
From a scoreless first inning, the Blu Girls exploded with 8 runs in the second inning to shock their opponents, who could not score even a single run against the tight defense by the Philippines in the game held at The Villages inside the Clark Freeport Zone.
Arianne Vallestero led the onslaught with two runs, while Angelu Gabriel, Mary Joy Maguad, Angelie Ursabia, Cristy Roa, Nichole Padasas and team captain Cheska Altamonte contributed one each in that stretch.
“The international exposure provided by our President Jean Henri Lhuillier was a very big factor for the girls, plus playing before a home town crowd really pumped them up. Ang sarap ng feeling to play in that situation,” said Blu Girls’ coach Randy Dizer.
“The girls really worked hard to reach this level of playing and I give them credit for the way they played throughout the competition. We are all happy that we were able to bring honor again to the country. Now, we need to sustain this and move to the next level,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, long time president of ASAPHIL and Cebuana Lhuillier, which has been supporting softball in the country for along long time.
The Blu Boys, however, failed to duplicate the achievement of the Blu Girls, losing anew to Singapore in the finals, 2-6, in 7 innings with the lone run coming in the sixth inning and their rivals beyond reach already,
They settled for the silver.
The Blu Boys failed to solve the fast ball pitches of Singapore, while the latter’s catchers prevented the Filipinos from scoring when at bat.