Fil-Ams spice up Baseball Philippines’ 6th season

Six Filipino-Americans along with a number of collegiate standouts and national team players will add flavor to this year’s Dunkin Donuts-Baseball Philippines Series VI, which opens on Saturday at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Field.

The Batangas Bulls open up their title defense bid when they face the Manila Sharks in the lone opening game at 1:30 p.m.

The Randy Dizer-managed Bulls, which has top pitchers Vladimir Eguia and Romeo Jasmin in their fold, will parade Fil-Am rookie Justin Zialcita against the Sharks.

Aside from Zialcita, Bobby Siatong with brothers Andres and Carlos Borromeo will suit up for the Alabang Tigers while the Ubungen brothers, Lorenzo and Florentino, will play for the Cebu Dolphins.

The Fil-Am collegiate players are seeing action in the league as they are in their summer break in the United States.

The Ubungen brothers played for the San Francisco State University while Siatong is a member of University of Texas.

“I feel that the mixture of talent from the UAAP, the national team and the Fil-Ams will add color to the league," said Baseball Philippines operations manager Leslie Suntay, who is the Tigers’ catcher.

Six teams will be slugging it out for the title with the Cebu Dolphins, the other team who is seeking a third crown.

The Dolphins topped Series II and IV while the Bulls won Series III and Series V.

Other teams are the Tigers, Forward Taguig, and newcomer Pampanga Sand Kings.

Teams will play in a single round robin with the top four to advance into the cross over semifinals with the top two teams to enjoy the twice to beat advantage against the next two opponents.

The finals will be a best of three series.