Philippine teams ready for Regionals

The Junior, Senior, and Big League all-star teams of the Philippines practiced yesterday at the Dandan and Capital Hill Fields in preparation to the “Road to the World Series” set to unfurl tomorrow at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

All three teams from the Philippines that will see action in the 2008 Asia-Pacific Little League Regional Tournament are from the International Little League Association of Manila, or ILLAM.

The Saipan Tribune attended the Big League’s practice session yesterday at Dandan Field and the manager of the team’s 17- and 18-year-old players, Arsenic Laurel, was the first to admit that his Big League team’s chances of advancing to the World Series are 50-50, at best.

“Of all the three teams, our Big League team is probably the weakest in our division. I think the Juniors and the Seniors have even better chances of advancing to the World Series…but we’ll see…”

Laurel said last year, his Big League team lost all its games but lost them by only a run each. He hopes to improve on that 0-2 mark in 2007.

“The Big League I think will have a credible showing. We’ve been playing in the Regionals the past six years. The Guam and CNMI teams have excellent players. Every year that we play them, we learn something new and hopefully this year we will be able to meet that level of play.”

Laurel marveled at the Marianas’ commitment to America’s favorite pastime and how catching, throwing, and hitting baseballs have become sort of second nature to them.

“In Guam and the CNMI, the kids play a lot of baseball. Us, I have five guys here who play soccer the other half of the year. Four guys play basketball. They’re doing something else but this year they all made a commitment to devote their time to baseball.”

He also finds solace that his Big League team is an experienced one with majority of the players having been to the World Series.

“We won it all in Jakarta in 2006 and plus our players from the Senior League makes three-fourths of this team veterans of the World Series.”

Asked what his team does best, Laurel said they are a good hitting team and are very good defensively, but added that the chink in his squad’s armor is pitching due to the pitch count.

“We may not have the pitching depth and Guam and the CNMI are both good hitting teams. Winning the championship would require some seat-of-the-pants coaching and managing. We should know when to save our best pitcher for another game,” he said.

Laurel also hopes his kababayans on Saipan would all come out to the Oleai Sports Complex to root for the Pinoy teams this coming week.

The Philippines’ Big League representative to the Asia-Pacific tourney went unbeaten in five games in the regular season and then defeated Makati in the finals.

ILLAM’s Senior League team, meanwhile, also went unscathed in the regular season before beating Tanawan City in the championship.

The ILLAM Juniors also went the same rout, going unbeaten in the regular season before defeating Muntinlupa in the finals.

ILLAM’s Major All-Stars, however, will not be making the trip to Hong Kong this year after losing to Tanawan City in the semifinals.