Ateneo upends UST in battle of baseball co-leaders

c/o UAAP

Ateneo de Manila University got themselves a hot streak going, securing a 10-8 victory against co-leaders University of Santo Tomas in second round action of the UAAP Season 86 Baseball tournament on Thursday at the UP Baseball Field.

Head coach Bocc Bernardo shares, "What's been working is that these guys are playing as a team. Our rotations are working, even our bench is working, everybody is contributing to the team. We know UST is a very tough team and we know we need to win this game to secure our Final Four slot or even make it safer for us."

Enzo Montemayor went 4/6 to lead the offensive for the Blue Eagles, with all but a couple of batters managing to get a hit against the Golden Sox.

With Ateneo trailing after five innings, 3-4, Luis Capati kickstarted a three-run sixth inning that allowed the Blue Eagles to retake the lead for good. Magsadia then hits a triple to score Capati, while a ground rule double allows Magsadia to touch home.

A successful attempt from Ethan Mitschiener to steal second base allowed Casanova to score to make it 6-4.

On the mound, Joshua de Juras fanned seven batters en route to a complete game on the mound, managing to hold UST to a single earned run in the first eight innings, including just a couple of hits between the fourth and eighth innings.

Ateneo provided de Juras with insurance run support, as they scored at least a run in the subsequent three innings. 

With the victory, Ateneo moved into the provisional lead at 5-3, while UST drops down to 4-4 as they lose back-to-back matches.

The Lines:

Ateneo  3 0 0 0 0 3 1 2 1 - 10 12 4

UST      0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 -   8  8  6