BACK-TO-BACK defending champion Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle beat their respective oppositions and opened their campaigns on a winning note, as the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 77 men’s baseball tournament unwrapped on Sunday.
Fielding in a virtually intact lineup from last season, the Blue Eagles batters fended off Adamson University’s late-game challenge to walk off with a 5-3 win in the tournament’s opener.
Ateneo quickly built a commanding 4-0 lead, with runs courtesy of Lorenzo Ramos, Chip Esguerra, Pelos Remollo and Adriane Ros Bernardo. Ramos reached base on a lead-off single, Esguerra via a fielder’s choice, and Remollo then loaded the bases via base on balls by Adamson pitcher Marvin Camposanto.
Raphael Balagtas then belted a single to left field that allowed Ramos to reach base, with Bernardo punching through another single to bring in Remollo. Bernardo himself got to touch home plate on Camposanto’s committing a crucial pitching error.
At the bottom of the sixth, the trio of Nelson Salazar, Jerome Yenson and Lourence Ruiz tried to mount the Soaring Falcons’ comeback, but the team failed to score in the final three innings, thanks to superb pitching by the Ateneo duo of Jaime Cojuangco and Juan Paolo Macasaet.
Cojuangco and Macasaet, playing in relief of starting pitcher and Season 76 Most Valuable Player Andrew Tan, kept up the team’s top-notch defense by retiring the side in the final three innings.
Last year’s losing finalist Green Archers needed just seven innings to complete a 19-5 rout of University of the Philippines (UP) in the midday showcase.
It was all La Salle from the get go as it went through its entire order in the first inning to build a 9-0 lead that buried the Fighting Maroons in a deep hole very early.
Lightning struck twice for La Salle, as it padded on the lead further with seven more runs in the fifth inning and further doomed UP’s hopes of salvaging a victory.
Stringing together the hits for the Green Batters was fifth-year second baseman Luis Carlos Laurel with four runs batted in (RBIs), including a near-perfect three-for-four (two singles, triple) afternoon on the plate. Rookie Gesmundo added two RBIs on a one-for-four (double) performance.
Meanwhile, Ateneo high school romped through University of Santo Tomas, 12-0, in an abbreviated contest that lasted four-and-a-half innings in the opening match of the juniors division late on Saturday.