{"id":19753,"date":"2013-02-19T08:59:27","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T16:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=19753"},"modified":"2013-02-19T08:59:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T16:59:27","slug":"phillipines-squad-off-to-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=19753","title":{"rendered":"Phillipines Squad off to New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_19754\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19754\" style=\"width: 217px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tempo.com.ph\/2013\/02\/blu-boys-off-to-nz\/#.USOubR3WjJI\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/tempo-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Click logo for original news story.\" width=\"217\" height=\"124\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19754\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19754\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click logo for original news story.<\/figcaption><\/figure><em>By CLYDE MARIANO<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Manila, Philippines \u2013 The RP Blu Boys leave today for New Zealand confident of figuring prominently in the World Men Softball championship slated on March 1 in Christchurch.<\/p>\n<p>Fully equipped and loaded with all the logistics from their arsenal, the Filipinos will match prowess against the world\u2019s best teams in the 16-team biennial meet sanctioned by the International Softball Federation.<\/p>\n<p>Handled by veteran coach Roberto Ituralde, the Filipinos seek to win back the championship which their their predecessors bag in 1990 at the Rosario diamond in Pasig City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe boys are all in high spirits. I am optimistic they will perform prominently because they have sufficient training and preparation,\u201d said Ituralde.<\/p>\n<p>Former Ateneo cager and ASAPHIl official Danny Francisco remains positive the Filipinos would do well because they are well equipped and have enough foreign exposure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe coaching staff screened thoroughly the credentials of the players to make the team highly competitive,\u201d said Francisco.<br \/>\nThe Blue Boys qualified to the world tourney following their decent showing in the Asian Softball qualifying in Japan last year.<br \/>\nThe Philippines is one of three Asian teams along with Japan and Indonesia taking part in the quadrennial meet.<br \/>\nThe team leaves early to acclimatize to the weather condition in New Zealand. While there, they will play in tuneup games against foreign teams.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pullquote\">\u201cWe have to leave early to get familiar with the cold weather condition and familiarize the real condition of the playing field,\u201d <\/span> noted Ituralde, who watched Game 1 of the best-of-three title series between UAAP defending champion National University and Ateneo which the Blue Eagles won.<\/p>\n<p>The team is powered by five talented pitchers who are all veterans of various international competitions: Florante Acu\u00f1a, Rogelio Rojas, Leo Barredo, George Marquez and Marlon Pagkaliwagan.<br \/>\nPagkaliwagan is a nephew of former Blu Boys pitchers Rey and Ronelon Pagkaliwagan. Ronelon was a former pitching coach of China\u2019s national softball team.<\/p>\n<p>Rey Pagkaliwagan, Joel Binarao and Rezel Santos served as assistant coaches to Ituralde.<\/p>\n<p>The trip is supported by ASAPHIL and backed by Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By CLYDE MARIANO Manila, Philippines \u2013 The RP Blu Boys leave today for New Zealand confident of figuring prominently in the World Men Softball championship slated on March 1 in Christchurch. Fully equipped and loaded with all the logistics from their arsenal, the Filipinos will match prowess against the world\u2019s best teams in the 16-team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-isf","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19755,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753\/revisions\/19755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}