MANILA – The Philippine baseball team beat Hong Kong 7-5 to defend its crown in the 2018 BFA East Asia Cup on Friday at the Sai Tso Wan Baseball Field in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
The Filipinos qualified to next year’s Asian Baseball and the Asian U-23 Baseball Championships after sweeping their four elimination round matches in the weeklong tournament.
Tournament MVP Kiko Gesmundo pitched the first seven innings and fanned out seven batters that led the Philippines to clinch its fifth championship overall in the regional competition.
Jonjon Robles, who went 2-0 in the tournament, was named Best Pitcher. Erwin Bosito had the Most Stolen Bases with six, Steven Manaig became the Best Catcher and Javi Macasaet took the third-best baseman honors.
Scores were 1-all into the second inning when the Philippines caught fire with its hitting – back-to-back triples by Bosito and Jennald Pareja sparked a four-run inning for the Filipinos.
Gesmundo pitched the first seven innings of the game, striking out seven Hong Kong players. A costly wild pitch by the home team in the eighth inning punched in two more runs in the eighth inning.
Hong Kong rallied back at the bottom end of the inning as pitcher Li Wing Sing hit a 3-run home run to reduce the deficit down to two. But Romeo Jasmin sealed it off in the last 1.2 innings for the Philippines.
“We just want to stick together. No matter what, mag-train kami. Sana lang mabigyan ng opportunity makapag-compete sa Asian Games. If not, may iba pa at sigurado malaki pa i-improve ng team,” said Philippine team captain Aids Bernardo./PN
