Tanauan City, Illam batters gain World Series slots

MANILA—The Philippines’ Tanauan City and Illam squads crushed their respective opponents at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium yesterday to book tickets to the World Series.

Tanauan whitewashed Indonesia, 10-0, in six innings to secure the right to represent Asia Pacific in the Seniors World Series in Bangor, Maine, on Aug. 14 to 20.

International Little League Association of Manila carried out a similar rout of CNMI Saipan, 7-1, to earn the region’s slot in the  slated July 27 to Aug. 3 in Easley, South Carolina.

Melvin Rosita gave up only three hits in a no-relief stint for Tanauan, and Christian Mercado banged in four RBIs against an Indonesian side which they beat all three times they met in abbreviated games.

“This win is a product of good team work,” said Tanauan coach Chito Mercado.

The Batangas squad exploded for three runs each in the first and sixth innings to completely break the Indonesians’ back.

Mercado lined a single to the middle to score Miguel Olmos and Andrew Mercado to highlight the first-inning burst, while Marvin Macayanan fired a two-run single, scoring Rosita and Andrew Mercado in the sixth.

Earlier, Illam’s 5-foot-10 pitcher Tsuyoshi Horibata gave up one run and seven hits to the Saipan batters.

Illam accounted for 10 hits against Saipan’s Joseph Palacios, who took over from Macgratte Duenas after walking Leandro Banzon and Mark Ong in the first inning.

Linescores:
INDONESIA—000 000 xxx—0
TANAUAN—311 203 xxx—10

ILLAM—300 011 2—7
CNMI—000 010 0—1