Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Ateneo, La Salle, secure UAAP baseball finals berths

There will be a third straight Ateneo-La Salle finals in UAAP baseball, as the Sunday triple-header in Rizal Memorial yielded contrasting victories for the arch-rivals.

The defending champions eked out a walk-off victory over UP, 11-10, with Marco Mallari's 9th inning one-out RBI double that got Marquis Alindogan home to secure their seventh win in eight games. The Blue Eagles survived 20 hits from the Maroon Batters, who had tied the game off RBI doubles from SJ San Juan and Laurence Chavez.

Ateneo co-captain Ryan Tionloc was proud of Mallari's performance, calling it "fantastic." He adds that he hopes that they can continue this in their two remaining games.

The losing finalists, in contrast, rode on a Carlos Munoz complete game to turn back Adamson, 4-1. Fresh from a shoulder injury, he allowed just one hit, an Erwin Bosito double in the first inning. Bosito would steal third and score off a fielding error from catcher Paul Naguit,

That was the only positive thing from the San Marcelino batters that day, as Munoz would then shut things down on the Falcon Batters with ten strikeouts, including the final two batters of the game.

As for the Green Batters, Carlos Minana's 1st inning 2-RBI double gave them the lead they would not relinquish. Joshua Salinas took advantage of an Adamson throwing error to score La Salle's 3rd run from first base in the second inning. Capping things off scoring wise was a Boo Barandiaran RBI single that brought home Paolo Salud.

Munoz praised his team's defense, noting that they did not mess up on the ground balls that he was throwing.

The other match scheduled had UST subdue NU, 8-6. The Golden Sox rode on Arcel Aligno's three-run homer to cap a five-run ninth inning, then used Jackson Acuna to shut things down on the bottom of the ninth.

After opening with a Junmar Diarao flyout, and singles from Clarence Caasalan and Aprix Santos, the rookie reliever struck out Kenneth Ybanez for the second out, with a Erickson Villame groundout closed things out for UST.

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