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| c/o UAAP |
Ateneo de Manila rode on timely late hitting and the pitching performance of Joshua de Juras to take an 11-7 victory over the University of the Philippines in the UAAP Season 86 Baseball tournament Sunday at the UP Baseball Field inside the Diliman campus.
De Juras, a 22-year-old alumnus of PAREF-Southridge, overcame a bases-loaded jam in the fifth with a huge strikeout of Ian Mercado to preserve a 6-5 lead.
Although the Fighing Maroons would tie it at 6-all the top of the sixth inning, Ateneo would take the lead for good with a pinch-hit two-RBI double to deep center from Daniel Fabella, getting Enzo Montemayor and Luis Mendoza home after they each netted walks. An additional run made it 9-6 and provided the necessary breathing room for the Bocc Bernardo-coached IX.
Bernardo said afterwards, "Well, it was a good build-up from our last game. Our bats started talking again early and we capitalized on the UP errors. And our pitchers did a good job; we used two. We started with our rookie M (Senador) and we know that Josh (De Juras) will hold the fort for us to the end."
He also shared what his pre-game instructions was to De Juras. Bocc notes, "Ikaw ang pinaka-veteran ko na pitcher dito. I have to rely on you no matter what happens. When I put you in I want you to attack the pitchers like you've never pitched before."
UP broke through at the top of the third inning, as hits from LM Basañes, Mercado, and Razhley Santos plated home four runs, but Ateneo managed to match that at the bottom of the same inning.
With their back-to-back victories, the Blue Eagles are now temporarily in second at 2-1, just behind the currently undefeated University of Santo Tomas.
UP drops to 1-2 with the defeat, just ahead of winless Adamson.
The Line:
UP 0 0 4 0 1 1 1 0 0 - 7 9 4
Ateneo 0 2 4 0 0 3 1 1 x - 11 8 7
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