La Salle pounds Adamson in UAAP baseball

c/o UAAP

La Salle unleashed a nine-run fifth inning on their way to a 13-4 victory against Adamson to cap off the Thursday triple-header in the UAAP Season 86 Baseball Tournament at the UP Baseball Field inside the Diliman campus.

With the match level at four runs apiece, Pio Villamiel led things off with a double to left-center, followed up by a JR Samuel single.

A throwing error by the Soaring Falcons allowed both Villamiel and Samuel to score, retaking the lead for the Green Batters. Both batters managed to get another at-bat during the inning, in the process seeing the defending champions score seven more runs.

Samuel would finish with a hit on each of his four at-bats, while also putting a bow to the victory through a pitching appearance to close out the match.

Reigning Finals MVP Joshua Pineda contributed to the victory with a no-hit, eight-strikeout performance in four and two-third innings pitched.

Head coach Joseph Orillana shared post-game, "After nung talo namin sa NU, ang sabi ko lang sa kanila, yung last three games namin, must win. Hindi na pwedeng loss ulit kasi 'yan ang pwedeng maglagay sa 'min sa alanganin sa top four."

He adds, "So ang gameplan namin is to win every game. As much as possible, 'yung last three games namin maipanalo namin kung gusto naming ma-secure 'yung top four, or even top two."

Thanks to this victory, La Salle moves into a tie atop the standings with Ateneo and NU at 5-3. They will face the Blue Eagles on Sunday morning with the winner clinching a postseason berth.

Adamson drops to 2-6 with the defeat and are set to face the University of the Philippines that same night.

The Lines:

DLSU   0 4 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 - 13 12 5 

AdU   1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 -  4  6  4