The Philippine Blu Girls bowed to Chinese Taipei, 4-6, at the end of the group phase on Friday in the 2019 Asia Cup Women’s Softball Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Filipina softballers, ranked 13th in the world, played feebly in the first two innings, giving up four walks and six runs to the No.6 ranked Chinese Taipei. They tried to rally in the next four innings and even scored a homerun courtesy of Angeline Ursabia but Taiwan held on to win the game.
The Blu Girls finished Group B at second place with a 3-1 record. They will face Korea in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday.
Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines (ASAPHIL) president Jean Henri Lhuillier, however, believes the Philippine team will bounce back and still hit its target of reaching the WBSC Softball Asia/Oceania 2019 Qualifying Event for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The top six teams in the Asia Cup aside from Olympic Games host Japan will advance to the Olympic qualifier to be played in Shanghai, China in September. The winner of that tournament will earn the right to compete in the Olympics when softball is played for the first time since 2008.
