The Philippine Blu Girls will next be facing 5 of the top 30 women's softball teams in the world.
It really is “abante babae” in local sports lately.
On the heels of another banner PVL season and in the same week the Philippine National Women’s Football team got their Olympic qualifier bid underway, another national women’s team showed they can be world class: the Philippine Blu Girls.
The Blu Girls, the country’s national women’s softball team, secured a place in the XVII WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup over the past week after finishing fourth in the round robin stage of the 2023 Women's Softball Asia Cup held in Incheon, South Korea. The Blu Girls also made it all the way to the bronze medal match opposite Chinese Taipei, but fell short, 10-5, to settle for fourth place overall for the tournament.
The Filipina batters, though, will be up against stiff competition in the World Cup group stage to be held from July 11 to July 26 in Buttrio, Italy. The Blu Girls are in Group C for the tournament, and it is arguably close to a group of death bannered by 2022 World Cup runners-up and world number 2 Japan. Others in the bracket are host Italy (number 8), Canada (number 4), Venezuela (number 22), and New Zealand (number 28).
The Blu Girls will aim to finish as one of the top two teams of Group C to advance to the final stage of the World Cup, which will be held next year, also in Italy. A third-place finish can still, theoretically, move the Philippines to the World Cup proper, but it will depend on the results of the other groups, including Group A, which will be bannered by defending champion and world number 1 United States. In the same bracket are group host Ireland (number 17), Chinese Taipei (number 3), Australia (number 9), Great Britain (number 16), and Botswana (number 47). Group B, on the other hand, will feature group host Spain, Puerto Rico (number 5), Netherlands (number 10), China (number 13), Cuba (number 27), and South Africa (number 39).
Advancing to next year’s World Cup proper will be a tall order for these Blu Girls. But if there is one thing Filipinas in sports have proven lately, it’s that they are perfectly capable of defying the odds.