BANGOR, Maine — The Illam Central team from Makati City in the Philippines went 0-4 in pool play at the Senior League World Series a year ago.
The Asia-Pacific champs have sewn up the region’s first berth in the semifinals since the tourney came to Mansfield Stadium in 2002.
Tsuyoshi Horibata hurled six-plus innings of five-hit, three-run baseball, striking out seven and walking two; Julian Habana hit a two-run single and a shaky Adriane Bernardo stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh as Makati City held off a furious Cornwall (Ontario) Black Sox rally to notch a 5-4 win.
Makati City concluded pool play with a 3-1 record while Cornwall fell to 0-3 including a pair of one-run losses and a 6-3 12-inning setback to Fremont, Calif., late Tuesday night.
Righthanders Horibata and Jay Flannigan from Cornwall dueled masterfully through five scoreless innings.
Flannigan had scattered four singles through the five innings with 46 strikes among his 58 pitches while Horibata had allowed just a double and a single while tossing 44 strikes among 62 pitches.
But Makati City finally broke through with a pair of runs in the sixth.
Niklas Sarda grounded a single up the middle and Charles Catangui’s pop fly dropped into left center for a base hit.
Habana sacrificed them along and Jose San Juan delivered Sarda with a ground ball to second.
“I was just trying to get the runner in. [Flannigan] threw me a fastball outside. I didn’t try to hit it hard,” said San Juan.
Horibata followed with an opposite-field line-drive single to right to score Catangui.
“Our coaches said he’d throw outside so I just waited and hit it to right field,”
said Horibata.
“They made good contact and found the holes,” said Flannigan.
Makati City added three in the seventh.
Vincent Ching lined a single to center to chase Flannigan in favor of lefty Josh Filion.
One out later, Bernardo lofted a double just inside the right-field line and Ching scored on an infield error.
Another out later, Habana ripped his two-run single to center.
“It was a fastball right down the middle and I hit it right back at the pitcher,” said Habana. “If I had tried to pull it, it might have been an easy fly ball.”
Cornwall made things very interesting in the seventh as a hit batter, Nolan St. Denis’ single and one-out RBI singles by Dylan Casselman and James Shaw cut the lead to 5-2.
Bernardo came on to replace Horibata and Aaron Seguin greeted him with a long RBI double to left center.
Following a strikeout, Bernardo issued two walks to force in the fourth run before getting a game-ending strikeout.
Dylan Casselman doubled and singled for Cornwall.