The Blu Girls beat Canada, 6-2. Handout photo
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Blu Girls pulled off another upset abroad as they stunned powerhouse Canada, 6-2, in front of the latter's home crowd to open its campaign in the Canada Cup International Softball Championship.
This comes after the Blu Girls shocked world No. 4 Australia in the World Cup of Softball XII last week.
The Cebuana Lhuillier-backed Filipinas, ranked 17th in the world, downed world No. 3 Canada in Pool B of the 15-team championship round robin competition in Softball City, Surrey, Canada.
Playing in front of their foes' home crowd, the Blu Girls built a commanding 4-2 lead in the third inning courtesy of Garie Blando's 2 RBIs, while Francesca Altomonte also homered in the second to drive in two runs.
"I'm so elated with this win by our Blu Girls over powerhouse Canada. I'm eagerly anticipating their upcoming games as they battle other top teams in the world," said Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier.
The Philippine national softball team has now tallied four straight wins coming from a stint in the World Cup of Softball XII in Oklahoma, USA.
"The Blu Girls have proven that their wins versus world number 4 Australia and world number 10 Mexico were not a fluke. I've never doubted that softball is the team sport that we can be at par with the world's best. This is a big boost to our bid to qualifying in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," added Lhuillier.
In other games, Australia beat Venezuela 3-1, Mexico blanked Quebec Rebelles 10-0, and Japan blasted NJCAA 14-2.
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