San Mateo, Miriam crush girls’ softball rivals

Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines PHOTO

SAN MATEO, Rizal and Miriam College posted shutout wins to set in motion their respective campaigns in the 2015 National Inter-Secondary Girls’ Softball Championships at Sto. Niño Baseball Field in Marikina Saturday.

The San Mateo belles demolished their rivals from Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, 11-0, to kick off their title-retention drive.

Miriam also posted a lopsided 10-0 romp over Pampanga province at the start of the week-long tournament.

Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines (Asaphil) board member and project director for girls’ youth softball lawyer Rolando Rivera and Marikina Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz graced the opener.

The tournament drew 22 teams from all over the country and is organized and conducted by Asaphil headed by Cebuana Lhuillier president Jean Henri-Lhuillier

The  champion team will get P25,000.

Rose Robrigado hit a three-run homerun late in the first inning as San Mateo, Rizal took control early.  The defending champion then added four more runs before Maica Mendoza and Ma. Teresa Blanco joined in the scoring binge to cap their romp.

The young guns of Miriam College likewise dominated their rivals from Pampanga from start to finish.

“This is a program of Asaphil for the youth to gain more experience and for us to discover more young players from the different provinces of the country,” said Rivera.

“The difference is that we have a very big number of participating teams. Last year, we had about 13 teams only.  This year, we ballooned to 22 teams. There could have been more teams but we had problems with conflicting class schedules.”