Rizal Wins Big League Softball

Surprise ? Well not really. Vindication ? Not sure.

It certainly was a novel event to see Rizal win Big League Softball.

Background: Rizal was disqualified in Senior League softball for fielding ineligible players in 2007. There were players from Mindanao and Visayas who played for Rizal then. Rizal tried to qualify them by showing a court ordered guardianship. The guardian was a resident within the Rizal charter. Not so fast said Little League Philippines. There were questions whether this was a bona fide guardianship. The court order stated that the players moved from their homes to Rizal because they were skilled softball players. They moved to further develop their careers as softball players and to qualify them for the competitions they were to join.

Rule changes for 2009 now allowed Rizal to field players from other regions. The Big League tournament was declared District Administered. This Little League rule allows District Administrators more leeway around the very strict charter rules which are applied to the younger age brackets. The second rule change allowed players younger than 18 to declare their dormitory addresses to comply with the residence requirement. Many players from outlying regions failed to qualify to play in the Little League Philippine Series because their parents lived far away from the schools they were attending. A majority of players in Big League softball competition are college players.

The new rule change opened opportunities for many players to participate. One example is Veronica Belleza who represented Bacolod at the Little and Junior League World Series in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2008 she enrolled for High School in Rizal but was unable to play in Senior League because of Little League residence rules.

Going in to the tournament Rizal became an instant favorite to win. Despite the rule changes another pre-tournament favorite Manila was unable to field a team. Players from UST were not permitted to join Manila. However Manila was allowed to combine with ILLAM. This combination gave ILLAM the pitching and catching that they lacked. ILLAM/Manila became a solid contender. Santa Cruz, Laguna was a dark horse as they were able to add their former talented players now in college to their very strong high school team. Prior to the Philippine Series Santa Cruz and Rizal played a preview in the Southern Tagalog Region Athletic meet. Rizal won this competition. Another dark horse was Caloocan who interestingly was allowed to combine with UST.

Elimination Round Standings:

	W	L
ILLAM	6	2
Rizal	6	2
Santa Cruz	5	3
Caloocan	3	5
Bacolod East	0	8

An interesting triple tie was averted when Santa Cruz lost to Caloocan on the last day 5-2. This set up an interesting championship game between Rizal and ILLAM.

Excellent pitching and great fielding by Rizal finally won the day by a 3-2 score. For Rizal, Veronica Belleza pitched the game of her life . She now gets another opportunity to pitch in international competition.