The first-ever Philippine women’s baseball team did the country proud in their international debut.
Led by veterans Esmeralda Tayag and Wenchi Bacarisas, the Philippines battered Hong Kong, 12-3, before stunning Korea, 14-7, for a winning start in the Baseball Federation of Asia-2nd Women’s Baseball Asian Cup in Zhongshan, China on Saturday.
In a report by Philippine Amateur Baseball Association secretary general Pepe Muñoz, the Filipinas did very well against their foreign counterparts in the eight-team, two-group competition serving as qualifying tournament for the 2020 World Women’s Baseball World Cup.
Eight countries divided into two groups are seeing action in the week-long event which ends on Nov. 15.
Top seed Japan, host China, No. 5 India and No. 6 Pakistan are in Group A.
The Philippines is in Group B, along with second seed Chinese Taipei, third seed Korea and fourth seed Hong Kong.
The team closes out its elimination-round campaign against Chinese Taipei at 10 a.m. on Monday.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinal round while the bottom two teams will be relegated to the consolation pool.
The gold-medal game and bronze-medal match will be played on Nov. 15.