The Philippine women softball team opened its bid for a 2020 Tokyo Olympics slot with a 10-1 victory over Korea in Group B at the WBSC Softball Asia/Oceania Qualifier on Tuesday at the Shanghai Chongming Sports Training Center.
The Cebuana Lhuillier-backed Blu Girls dominated the match right from the start, but national coach Randy Dizer remained modest with the team’s feat saying the game was close and “only their (Koreans’) three errors saw us score five runs in the sixth innings to pull away.”
Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier, however, was elated with the inspiring win by the world No. 13-ranked Blu Girls against No. 23 Korea and hoped the team can sustain its winning ways.
“I’m very happy with the strong performance that the Philippine Blu Girls showed today, let’s continue to cheer them on and hopefully they can clinch the Olympic spot,” said Lhuillier, who is also President and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.
Eight countries are playing in this tournament with the winner getting the sixth and last spot for the women’s softball event of the 2020 Olympics.
In the other Group B match on Tuesday, world No. 8 China outplayed No. 11 New Zealand, 8-3.
In Group A action, No. 37 Indonesia edged No. 42 Hong Kong, 5-6; and No. 7 Australia defeated No. 6 Chinese Taipei, 5-1.
Five countries have already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
Japan claimed the first spot as host of the Games.
USA got the second berth as the 2018 WBSC world champion followed by Italy, the Europe/Africa Olympic qualifier winner.
The next two slots were secured by Mexico and Canada from the WBSC Softball Americas Olympic Qualifier.