PH baseball targets East Asia Cup top 2

Reuters

Clarence Caasalan and Agon De Vera are thrilled at the prospect of baseball being played in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

For now, though, the focus is on the BFA East Asia Men’s Baseball Cup that the country will host fro, Oct. 29 to Nov. 4 in Clark, Pampanga—with higher stakes on the table.

The two best countries in the seven-nation meet will advance to the 2025 BFA Asian Baseball Championships where world No. 1 Japan awaits, along with world No. 2 Chinese Taipei, sixth-ranked South Korea, and China.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to go head to head with the powerhouse teams in Asia,’’ said Caasalan on Tuesday during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum. “In the last Asian Baseball Championships, we’re very close to Chinese Taipei after ending up 2-1. Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei were surprised with our performance.”

“We just have to focus on our abilities instead of fearing the stronger teams,’’ said De Vera. “Our performance in the last Asian championships showed that we have the chance to beat the Big 3 (Japan, Chinese Taipei, Korea).”

Once the national squad dusts that one off, the next goal will be the 2026 Asian Games in Japan. Only after the team competes in the Asiad can it pour its efforts into making the Olympics.

“We’re happy that baseball is back and it’s an Olympic sport in 2028 LA, but that’s four years down the road,” said baseball chief Chito Loyzaga said.

Baseball in the 2026 Asiad will be staged in Nagoya, Japan, where the Filipino clouters will compete not only against the best in the continent, but versus the No. 1 country in the world.

“I guess we can talk more about LA after the Nagoya stint. Just to participate there in the country that is the No. 1 in baseball is a good experience for our players,’’ said Loyzaga.

“Personally, I would love our national team to qualify for the Olympics, but for now our focus is the East Asia Cup and go from year to year in preparation,’’ said Vince Sagisi, director of baseball operations for PABA.

“Hopefully we can get there and earn the opportunity because I’m here for the long term,’’ added Sagisi.

The national sluggers won the Southeast Asian Games thrice, the last one back in 2019 that Manila hosted, and topped the Asian championships once in 1954 and placed third twice.