THE UST Golden Sox barged into the Final Four with a perfect record, claiming their eight straight win after defeating Ateneo de Manila University, 6-5, last January 16 at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Park.
The black-and-gold batters swept the first round of Season 73 hostilities last December and maintained an immaculate 8-0 win-loss card in the second round. Trailing UST are National University and Ateneo with a 4-3 and 4-4 standing, respectively. NU’s second game against University of the Philippines was postponed because of the hard rain last January 9.
But keeping the undefeated slate was not a walk in the park for the España-based squad. UST pitcher Glenn Tuazon was a bit off his usual game, which Golden Sox coach Jeffrey Santos attributed to a bad warm-up. Santos was not able to relieve Tuazon on the mound because ace pitcher Gerald Mitra was also not in top form.
“He [Mitra] was feeling something in his arm. But next game I will be able to use him already,” Santos said.
Only on the fourth inning did the UST batters get the lead and kept Ateneo from scoring again.
“We are lucky we made it through that pressured game,” said Santos.
In the bottom half of the fourth, Ka’sulhay Argel made the winning run as he hit the ball to centerfield and rushed to second base after Ateneo’s first base man Iñigo Olivares made an error and failed to ground him out. He was then propelled to home base by UST batter Harry Galapon’s centerfield hit, 6-5.
Despite scoring early runners in the first inning via Julian Teves, Arvin Plaza, and Carlo Conge, 3-0, the UST sluggers had to catch up as Ateneo batters completed five runs in the second and third.
Ateneo made two runs in the second frame as Joshua Rapaport’s hit drove the ball to centerfield, sending home teammates Niklas Sarda and Andrew Tan, 2-3.
The Blue batters briefly took the lead in the third inning as they made three more runs. Felipe Remollo was sent home by Sarda’s right field hit. Sarda was also sent home Cesar Esguerra II, who later made the last run for Ateneo via Olivares batting the ball to centerfield, 5-3.
In the bottom half of the same inning, the España clobbers answered the opponent with two runs to level the play field. UST catcher Galapon was sent home by rookie John Aligno’s left field hit and was also able to bring Amber Plaza to third base after Ateneo made errors. Plaza made the other run as Teves sent the ball flying to left field, setting the score at 5-5.
With two more games remaining in the second round, UST can claim the championship should it beat Season 72 titlist Adamson University and runner-up NU.
“We just focus on every game and try to win it. We try not to think about sweeping the round,” said Santos.
In earlier games, UST defeated UP, 8-6, last January 13 and escaped La Salle, 5-4, via an extra 10th inning last January 9. This was the second time black-and-gold batters battled the Taft-based squad and needed an extra inning to win the game. UST also defeated La Salle (8-6) and Ateneo (8-2) last December 12 and 9.
Not so lucky
The UST Softbelles bowed down to a merciless Adamson squad, 0-9, at the Rosario Sports Complex in Pasig last January 12.
After the exodus of Aiza dela Torre, UST relied on Melanie Laserna, Erika Panganiban, and Angelique Panganiban’s pitching prowess for defense.
At the bottom of the first inning, the Espana-based softbelles executed a rigid defense as catcher Jocelyn Ungsod caught Michelle Lentija’s fly-ball, while Luzviminda Embudo was struck out with Laserna’s pitch ending the first inning with 0-0.
A barrage of Adamson runs caught UST off guard, 0-5, in the second frame.
“For the next games, we will concentrate on offense since we do not have legitimate pitcher.”
