Asia Pacific was able to brush off some travel weariness and their opening loss to rebound for a 3-1 victory over the EMEA squad on Monday in the Senior League Softball World Series in Roxana.
Coastal Point • Ruslana Lambert
EMEA's Lindsay Jones winds up to fire a pitch in her team's game against Asia-Pacific.
Locked in a 0-0 tie for the first three innings, Asia Pacific (Bacolod City, Phillipines) broke the ice in the top of the fourth inning. Julie Marie Muyco, who also pitched for Asia Pacific, led off the fourth with a walk off EMEA pitcher Maddie Byrd. Elvie Entrina moved Muyco to second with a sacrifice bunt, and Muyco advanced all the way to third on the play.
Byrd was able to pick up the second out of the inning when Cherry An Basco grounded out to second, but a walk to Nerissa Benjamen put runners on the corners with two outs. Cherry Bartolome pounded a long double to centerfield to plate both runners, and Asia Pacific had a two-run lead.
In their next at bat, Asia Pacific found a little more success. EMEA (Ramstein AFB, Germany) brought back in starting pitcher Lindsey Jones to start the fifth, and Carol Cindy Banay greeted her with a single through the infield. A sacrifice bunt moved Banay all the way to third, and she came in to score on a suicide squeeze bunt by Benjamen to make the score 3-0.
Coastal Point • Ruslana Lambert
Mary Peterson slides in with a run for EMEA.
EMEA did not lie down and quit. Taking their turn in the bottom of the fifth, Mary Peterson drew a walk off new Asia Pacific pitcher Lucile Rote. Peterson then stole second and third and was there with one out following a strikeout by Rote.
A suicide squeeze by Becky Pletzer brought EMEA within two runs, but that was as far as they would get, as Rote shut them down the rest of the way.