PORTLAND, OREGON -- VILDA BENJAMEN has coached the Philippines in the Little League Softball World Series long enough to say that the US-West team it faced yesterday either improved a lot or her squad simply got overwhelmed by the feeling of playing here.

Deserted by the form that took them to this prestigious tournament, the reigning Asia-Pacific champion Filipinos absorbed a stunning 3-0 shutout from US-West, a team it has handily defeated in the past.

“We always had an easier time beating US-West,” said Benjamen, who had a different crop of players when they were crushing US-West teams in the 2004 and 2005 tournaments. “Perhaps they (the RP team) are not used to playing in this kind of atmosphere.”

There was more heartbreak for the Philippines in Lower Sussex, Delaware, where the Senior League team failed in its bid to gain a semifinal seat after suffering a close 1-0 loss to US-East, represented by a team from West Cumberland New Jersey.

The Filipinos gave up only a single hit—a triple from Arielle Bruno off Analie Benjamen that scored Nicholle Larro in the sixth inning for the only run of the game.

Julie Marie Muyco threw nine pitches and struck out all three batters in a scintillating start in the opening inning. She already had seven strikeouts by the time she left the mound in the third inning in favor of Benjamen, who preserved the no-hit record up until Bruno’s line drive to the fence.

The RP Team will play for third place against opening-day conqueror US-Central, which yielded the other championship slot to Latin America.