JAKARTA – National coach Randy Dizer admitted the RP Blu Girls were unable to recover from the heartbreak of losing against Chinese Taipei at the end of the preliminaries that would have ensured the team a historic bronze medal in the Asian Games.
On Wednesday night, the Blu Girls missed an opportunity to get a podium finish at the last day of the preliminaries when they lost to Chinese Taipei, 3-2, after they failed to score on a bases-loaded situation in three separate innings.
Getting another shot in the semifinal round, the Blu Girls lost again to the same Chinese Taipei team, 6-3, on Thursday night, ending a promising campaign after going undefeated in their first three games including a 1-0 victory over China.
“Yes, it’s hard,” said Dizer, when asked if the players had a difficult time recovering from the defeat. “Even me, I, as a coach, dapat labanan ko ‘yung nararamdaman ko pero inside, masakit. It’s hard for me."
"We were there. We were given a chance. I slept siguro 4 a.m. na thinking na meron ba akong dapat ginawa na iba, I should have done something different na baka nag-iba ang outcome. Pero wala eh, it’s there,” Dizer added.
Lai Mengting slammed a lead-off home run to start off the game for the Taiwanese, but that was answered back by an RBI single by Hailey Decker at the bottom half of the first.
Lin Feng Chen also blasted a two-run homer in the fifth over Royevel Palma to give Chinese Taipei a 5-1 lead and the Blu Girls never recovered from there.
“They were the better team tonight. They hit more and again, we were given two chances. We were not able to deliver. We played without an error except that na-scout na ‘yung mga pitchers natin. We have to change pitchers just to break their momentum,” said Dizer.
Dizer though is still proud of the team despite the challenges they faced including not having an opportunity to train for a lengthy period of time due to days of monsoon rains back home during their buildup for the Asian Games.
“Their (Chinese Taipei) preparation is non-stop. They go to the US, they go to Australia, they go to New Zealand, all for training. Ang sa atin, we were supposed to go to Canada and America, na-shelve ‘yun. Kaya pagdating natin ditong world championship, doon pa lang pumalo. Pero if we started from the US to Canada to the world championship, peak sila ngayon.
“Ibig ko lang sabihin, it’s the preparation ng ibang countries, the way they prepare. Ang atin, tignan mo, di kami tumuloy, we stayed sa Rizal Memorial, our Fil-Ams arrived to train supposedly for two weeks, we were not able to train because everyday, it’s raining. Tapos you are going to a world championship tournament.
“Pero wala na ‘yun eh. Let’s focus, we had a chance,” said Dizer.
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