BLU GIRLS
The Philippine Blu Girls completed their domination of opening-round games in the Canada Cup International Softball Championship, thwarting No. 9 Chinese Taipei, 11-7, to top Pool B in Surrey, British Columbia, on Wednesday.
The Blu Girls broke away from a tied game at 7 with four runs in the seventh frame, courtesy of Kaitlyn Suitos, Gabrielle Maurice, Kailee Cuico and Garie Blando, as the PH squad beat Chinese-Taipei for the first time in 10 years.
The victory came on the heels of their 6-2 upset of No. 3 Canada in the opener of the annual event Tuesday.
It was actually the 17th-ranked softbelles’ fourth straight triumph, counting their back-to-back triumphs over world No. 10 Mexico at the end of the World Cup of Softball XII last week where they finished seventh.
They also upended No. 4 Australia in the world tilt.
“The Blu Girls proved that the Philippines can truly excel in softball,” said Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier, who’s also throwing his full support behind the Blu Girls’ Olympic bid.
Against the Taiwanese, the Blu Girls led 7-1 after a five-run, six-hit outing at the top of the fifth. But they yielded five runs off five hits in the bottom of the same frame and the game-tying run in the sixth.
A strong finishing kick gave Team PH a 9-7 cushion with back-to-back RBI doubles before Garie Blando belted a two-run homer to pull away after the top seventh.