La Salle holds off Adamson in UAAP baseball

c/o UAAP

Timely clutch hitting allowed La Salle to escape as 6-5 winners in the opening match of the tripleheader for the UAAP Season 86 baseball tournament at the UP Baseball Field inside the Diliman campus.

The defending champions matched the Soaring Falcons' two runs in the eighth inning, while shutting the door in the ninth to secure their third win in four outings.

Coach Joseph Orillana says about the game afterwards, "Sinabi ko nga sa team na it's everybody's ball game. Pantay-pantay ang mga teams ngayon kaya huwag mag-relax. Nung lumamang sila, hinayaan ko lang kasi yung pitcher kaya naman nilang paluan. Pero gigil sila sa paluan kaya hindi sila nagko-contact ng solid. Kaya kung ganun, mag-inside baseball tayo."

The Soaring Falcons committed six errors, none bigger than in the seventh inning, with pitcher Kenneth Delos Santos committing a fielding error that got Patrick Rivera onto first. A subsequent error from Mark Montoya at second off a JM Segui hit eventually led to Rivera touching home to give the defending champions a 4-3 lead.

Peter Nonaillada held firm on the mound for DLSU, allowing just three runs in 6 2/3 innings while stranding nine Adamson runners on base.

Lord Aragorn de Vera had one of the four hits the Green Batters got off Delos Santos, managing to eventually touch home twice. Also netting singles are Shinji Kajihara, JR Alcontin, and Ezy Bautista.

The Lines:

Adamson 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 - 5 12 6
La Salle   0 0 3 0 0 0 1 2 X - 6 4 3