Pitching was the key for RP teams’ success

While the Philippines Senior All-Stars were saved by Yusuke Kuroda’s shutout performance in the seventh inning against the CNMI, their counterparts from the Juniors have the pitch count to thank for in their victory against the host team.

Alberto Catangui, manager of the Philippine Junior All-Star in the 2008 Asia-Pacific Regional Little League Tournament, was the first to admit that his hitters were having trouble trying to figure out Lamarc Iguel, the CNMI’s throwback starting pitcher.

“We were hoping that we would finish him because we don’t like slow balls. That is our problem ever since. We played Indonesia. We played Guam. They were throwing us slow balls. I think the CNMI guys know it so they used Lamarc.

“So when they used Harry (Nakamura) that’s when we began to hit the ball because the pitches he throws are our favorites. We like fastballs,” he said to the Saipan Tribune shortly after beating the CNMI 7-6 in yesterday’s first game at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field.

Catangui, whose son Charles started on the mound for the Philippines, said while he still doesn’t know the teams the newly minted Asia-Pacific Junior Champions will face in the World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, one thing’s for sure, they will learn how to hit slow balls back in Manila.

“When we come back to the Philippines we will practice hitting slow balls,” he said, adding that he didn’t actually yank his son from the game because he was being scored at.

“I just want a fresh arm out there. Tsuyoshi (Horibata) also just happens to have the fastest pitches on the team. The CNMI guys don’t know much about very fast fastballs and that’s why they kept on bunting. So, that’s why I put him in. Actually, I should’ve put him in earlier.”

Philippines Senior All-Star manager Peter Olivares, for his part, said his boys won the game because of good pitching.

He said Kuroda, despite giving up six runs in the game—three in the fifth—proved clutch when the team needed him most.

Kuroda, the son of Japanese expats working in Manila, struck out the CNMI’s top of the order in the seventh, starting it with consecutive strikeouts to Juan Iguel and Oferio Taitano.

He then got some much needed defensive help when center fielder Joel Lomotan caught John Pangelinan’s deep fly ball that could’ve easily given the CNMI a runner in second base.

Olivares also said that initially the team had some problems adjusting to the CNMI’s small-ball tactics that led to numerous errors, especially in the fateful fifth. But when Kuroda finally came around, so did the rest of the Philippines’ defense.

Philippine head of delegation Catherine Tenco-Ong, in an interview after the Philippines came a game short of sweeping the 2008 Asia-Pacific Regional Little League Tournament, said although their Big League team lost in the finals against the CNMI, winning two of three was still a big accomplishment.

This, considering that never before in the history of the country’s Little League Baseball program did the Philippines send more than one team to the World Series.

In other developments, the final inning of the Junior League match between the CNMI and Hong Kong was replayed late Wednesday after Junior World Series officials upheld the protest of the former Crown Colony.

It can be recalled that Hong Kong had argued that Harry Nakamura, who came in relief during their 8-5 loss Tuesday, was an ineligible player because he didn’t fulfill the two days’ rest period for pitchers who threw 95 pitches.

When the two teams took the field later Wednesday afternoon, Nakamura was “taken out” of the ninth but Hong Kong’s two runners remained in play. The two eventually scored but that was it as the CNMI “formally” advanced to the finals with an 8-7 win.

The same scenario happened in the game between Guam and Indonesia, also in the Junior League, with Guam prevailing in the “replayed” game.