By MARK REY MONTEJO
The Philippine men’s baseball team has jumped from No. 40 to No. 28 in the latest World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) rankings involving 80 countries.
The big leap has made the Nationals the best squad in the Southeast Asian region.
That was because the Nationals gained much from their impressive showing last year, including a dominant four-peat triumph in the BFA XIII East Asia Cup in Bangkok, Thailand last May and finishing fifth in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China last September.
The PH squad bested its SEA-neighbors in Thailand (42), Laos (49) and Singapore (57).
As expected, Japan still kept its No. 1 ranking with 5,797 points followed by Mexico (4764), USA (4492), South Korea (4353) and Chinese Taipei (4170).
Meanwhile, the women’s team fell two rungs in the standings, settling for 13th with 172 points.
On the other hand, the men’s and women’s softball teams are both ranked 14th collecting 590 and 868 points, respectively.
