Defending champion De La Salle University is one win away from taking a second straight UAAP baseball championship after edging University of the Philippines, 9-8, in Game 1 of the best-of-three finals on Tuesday at the UP Diliman Baseball Field.
The Green Batters will look to clinch the championship in Game 2 on Friday, with home-field advantage at 3:30 p.m.
Down, 4-8, DLSU unleashed a five-run fifth inning to take the lead at 9-8, which turned out to be the final score.
“Sinasabi ko sa kanila nga na this is a championship game, expect na hindi magiging madali ‘yung laban,” said Green Batters head coach Joseph Orillana.
Senior third baseman Julius Diaz started the rally off with his lone hit of the game, a single to the middle of the field and out of reach of UP second baseman Fritz Natanauan.
A throwing error by Maroons’ third baseman Mark Tuballas on an attempted out to first base put Diaz and centerfielder Shinji Kajihara on first and third base. A fielder’s choice saw Diaz get and Kajihara to scoring positions, which eventually scored off a hit from right-fielder Pio Villamiel, cutting the deficit to two at 6-8.
Shortstop Vince Flores then added another hit to the middle that scored Villamiel and relief pitcher Lord Aragorn De Vera, before crossing the plate himself to snag the lead for good at 9-8 with another hit from second baseman Joseph Alcontin.
From there, Joshua Pineda took control of the defense, steering the Green Batters’ stand on the mound, limiting the Fighting Maroons to two hits in the 5 1/3 innings in lieu of Flores and Pineda, striking out two of the last three batters.
“Both teams magiging pressured dahil nga first time lang din na humarap sa championship, ang isa lang dito is ay si Joshua [Pineda]. So sabi ko dalhin na nila ‘yung team, kumbaga, nag parehas ang labanan, kumbaga unahan lang ‘to, pa-kontian ng errors, padamihan ng hits,” added Orillana, also the pitcher who led La Salle to the UAAP Season 65 title.
A huge second inning put UP in the driver’s seat with five runs on three hits with returning centerfielder Ian Mercado getting his first of his two hits in the day.
UP captain Mark Tuballas scored two runs in the second and third innings, while Fritz Natanauan added two runs in the second and fourth innings, setting up the 8-4 margin heading into the fifth.
Kobe Torres, who started as UP’s designated hitter, took the mound after La Salle equalized at eight and eventually limited the latter but it was not enough to give UP the win.