PH batters bow to Sokors, must beat Taiwanese next

The Philippines took a lopsided 8-2 loss at the hands of South Korea on Friday and saw its chances of advancing to the finals of the Asian Baseball Championship dim considerably at Taipei Dome in Taiwan. A two-run fourth inning that tied the count at 2-2 was the lone bright spot for the Filipino batters, whose defeat put them in a much-win situation Saturday against host Chinese Taipei. Chinese Taipei was playing Japan at presstime in the day’s other match. Coach Orlando Binarao’s squad dropped to 0-2 in the standings going into the tough matchup with the Taiwanese. The top two teams advance to the final while the bottom two will play for third place. South Korea scored two runs in the bottom half of the first inning off Philippine starter Vladimir Eguia, with Junyeong Jeong on a fielders choice and Park Juchan reaching home a few batters later. But the Filipinos came back in the fourth after Aids Bernardo singled to left that scored Kyle Soberano from third with no outs while Erwin Bosito scored a couple of plays later on a fielders choice. —Jonas Terrado INQ