Indonesia gets into the swing of things at Manila baseball event

Mariko Takayasu, Contributor, Jakarta

Baseball's popularity in Indonesia is growing steadily with children and adults playing the game year round, rain or shine.

On weekends, scores of baseball players from Indonesia and other countries descend upon Jakarta's prized baseball fields at Senayan to perfect their hitting, batting and fielding in a sport fast becoming a favorite.

It appears all this training is paying off as these ball clubs begin competing in -- and winning -- regional tournaments.

This past week in Manila, the Jakarta Major League All-Star team won the regional championship in its division, while Jakarta teams made a strong showing in the five-nation Southeast Asia Youth Baseball and Softball Tournament.

Three of the four teams from Jakarta qualified for the championship game in their respective divisions, the first time so many Jakarta teams had reached the final round in more than a decade.

"Putting three teams into the finals is unheard of," said Jakarta Youth Baseball Assn. commissioner Bernie McCloskey. "In the previous 10 years we have had only three teams reach the finals. In this one tournament, we were able to match the success of the previous 10 years (combined)."

In a surprise, tournament officials named Jakarta as the site for next year's regional tournament, which will see All-Star teams from Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore, Manila and Perth competing.

The tournament hasn't been held in Jakarta since 1996.

"We've been waiting a long time for this tournament to return to Jakarta," said McCloskey. "This will be a great opportunity for Jakarta to showcase its first-class baseball facilities and its wonderful hospitality."

In the final round of the tournament on Sunday, the Jakarta Major League All-Star team, made up of boys aged 13 and 14, beat Perth 10-2 as Jakarta's hard-throwing pitching staff limited the division's strongest-hitting team on just four hits.

Jakarta first baseman Tyler Orton hit a two-run homer in the third inning to put Jakarta ahead for good. It was Orton's second home run of the competition, his first being a game-winning blast against a strong Manila team earlier in the tournament.

Centerfielder Darryl Ratulangi also homered in an earlier game.

Jakarta pitcher Kazuki Tsuji, who pitched the final inning and struck out all three batters he faced, was named the Major League's Most Valuable Player. He struck out 18 batters in the 12 innings he pitched in the tournament, including five shutout innings on Friday against Singapore.

Tata Putra, who pitched three shutout innings in the championship game against Perth, also turned in a dominating pitching performance throughout the tournament, striking out 14 batters in 12 innings.

Jakarta's batters hammered out 13 hits in the final game, including two each by Donovan Schneider, Tommy Paddock, Orton, Kazuki and Darryl. Rama Danang, Yuya Oshima and Raghav Kao also had key hits as the Jakarta batters kept up the pressure on the Perth pitchers.

The team is made up of players from Indonesia, Japan, the United States and India.

"It's great to see a multinational group of kids come together so well as a team," said coach David Orton. "They don't have a common language but somehow they were able to communicate with each other and work fantastically as a team."

The Jakarta Senior League team, made up of boys under the age of 19, was one out away from a victory over Manila in the championship game, but saw the game slip away when a Manila hitter slugged a towering two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game 3-3. Manila went on to win 4-3 in the eighth.

The Jakarta Girls Softball team, led by pitcher Isti Dewiyanti and power-hitting Jessica R.S. Prasetyo, reached the finals by beating Singapore, Bangkok and Perth, but lost to a tough Manila team in the final game 10-2.

Jakarta was particularly tough on rival Singapore in this competition, with all four Indonesian teams, including the Minor League team made up of boys aged 11 and 12, defeated all four of Singapore's teams.