The Philippine Blu Girls have reached a historic rank of no. 11 in the world.
This is according to the recent rankings released by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
The new rankings were handed out after the Blue Girls picked up their 10th gold medal in the recent 30th Southeast Asian Games.
“We did not expect such a big jump. It was a pleasant surprise,” said team skipper Cheska Altomonte, who is planning to retire from competition this year.
The Blu Girls, who accumulated 4110 points, claimed the SEA Games’ gold via a sweep of all their games.
In the finals, they routed Indonesia, 8-0.
Team USA leads the rankings with 5104 points, with Japan in second with 4723.
Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico are in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
The Blu Girls, coached by Randy Dizer, also played with Garie Blando, Mary Ann Antoleh Hao, Ezra Jalandoni, Lyka Basa and Kikay Palma.
The squad will now join Olympic qualifiers this year, according to Altomonte.
Altomonte said the team is thankful for the support of the Philippine Sports Commission and their patron and Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier
The Blue Girls have won SEA Games’ golds in 1979, 1981, 1987, 1991, 1997, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2015.