PATHUM THANI, Thailand—The Philippines continued its rampage in the men’s baseball competitions of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games after defeating Malaysia, 21-0, in five innings on Monday here.
A five-run first inning followed by eight in the second allowed the Filipino batters to break the game wide open and stay perfect halfway into the seven-team tournament at the Queen Sirikit Baseball Stadium.
Coach Orlando Binarao’s squad produced the runs despite having just 11 hits as it capitalized on 11 walks issued and three errors committed by Malaysia to win the abbreviated contest because of a 15-run mercy rule.
“Kailangan talaga i-treat namin every game like it’s championship game so hindi puwede magrelax-relax hanggang sa makamit ulit namin ang gold,” said Binarao, whose team won the last staging of the event on home soil in 2019.
Liam de Vera produced four RBIs in the convincing rout, providing enough run support for winning pitcher Clarence Caasalan, who struck out six batters in three innings.
Team Philippines previously beat Indonesia, 14-0, and Singapore, 17-3, in seven innings due to a 10-run mercy rule.
Up next is Vietnam on Tuesday in what will serve as a warmup before its big clash with host Thailand the day after.
“‘Yun talaga ang pinaghahandaan namin dahil may mga Thai-American sila, mga Thai-Japanese na players,” Binarao said. “Pero alam namin na pinaghahandaan nila kami.”
The single-round eliminations concluded on Thursday, with the top two teams facing off for the gold on Friday.
