Blu Girls eye routs in Jakarta tourney

The RP Blu Girls hope to snag a slot in the Guangzhou Asian Games when they compete in the Association of Southeast Asia women’s softball championships in Jakarta on July 29 to Aug. 1.

Officials are confident that the Nationals would get automatic qualification to the Asiad in November with a victory in the event, which serves as the regional championship after the sport was shelved last year in the Southeast Asian Games in Laos.

The Blu Girls are the perennial champions in the region, but team members are now scattered around the world after the squad disbanded last year.

Still, Asa-Philippines secretary general Danny Francisco said they still have the core players around.

“Yes, chances are that we will again win the championship with probably little opposition. But doing the feat by keeping the other teams from scoring and via abbreviated games, that would be the challenge,” said Francisco in yesterday’s Scoop Sa Kamayan session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura.

The team is still coached by multititled mentor Ana Santiago of Adamson University. Santiago steered the team to the 2007 SEA Games crown where the Blu Girls swept all matches in abbreviated manner.

Pitchers Dione Macasu, Joy Lasquite and Syrel Ramos are holdovers in the squad along with Sherylou Valenzuela, Esmeralda Tayag, Lulu Maganda and Sarah Agravante, according to Asaphil operations manager Jun Veloso.

Corazon Sobere, who came out of a self-imposed retirement, will again suit up for the tricolors after copping the Most Valuable Player in the recent Lhuillier-sponsored National Open.

Also beefing up the team are Elma Parohinog, Alex Zuluaga, Joan Pioquinto, hurlers Rizza Bernardino, Veronica Belleza and Julie Marie Muyco, younger sister of erstwhile no. 1 pitcher Cloiene Muyco, who is already in the United States.