After a disappointing year in Season 79, the DLSU Green Batters are back in the finals, ready to reclaim the UAAP’s top spot. With their match-up against the AdU Soaring Falcons just a few days away, The LaSallian caught up with last season’s Most Valuable Player, Ignacio Escaño. In his first Green Journal, he talks about the differences with the team this season, dealing with injury, and the keys to beating Adamson.
My favorite moment of the season
My favorite moment would definitely be clinching a spot in the finals in that second round Ateneo game. Even if I was sidelined by injury, just being there in that back-and-forth game, seeing my teammates not letting up and battling; giving everything they had. They simply just refused to lose that day and I really couldn’t be happier.
On dealing with a wrist injury and the lessons I’ve learned from it
It honestly sucks. It is really frustrating and sometimes I just get a feeling of helplessness not being able to be out there on the field contributing. This is my first injury during the UAAP season and it’s the first time I’ve had to sit out games because of injury. So this was new to me, but I definitely learned a lot from this.
It taught me how I could still contribute to the team even if I’m not on the field. Before, I used to just worry about myself, as long as I was ready and did my part I thought it’d be fine. One of my realizations going into this season was that I couldn’t just do that and that I had to see what I could do to help everyone else get onboard too. Being on the sidelines really opened that realization up for me because I couldn’t allow myself to just be helpless, so I had to find ways to really get the most out of those guys out there on the field.
Comparing last season’s team to this year’s
Honestly, the vibe of the team is just completely different. I’ve been telling a lot of these guys since before the season even started that this team feels different in a good way. And it really just felt like everything was gonna come together for us this year, hopefully it really does. I could really feel how much harder everyone worked this year and how bad we want that championship back.
On what the team worked on after losing to Ateneo in the first round
We focused more on our defense because I honestly think that’s what lost us that game, we had too many costly errors. It was also a good wake-up call for us to always stay hungry, never let our guard down, and remain focused on our goal.
The keys to beating Adamson
For me, it just comes down to three things. First is that our offense has got to come out. That has been our strong point all season and I feel for us to win, it has to continue to be. Second is to limit our errors because like I said I feel our only loss this season was largely due to errors so we must really limit those. Third is to keep their best three hitters in check, namely Bosito, Manaig, and Yenson. Those guys are the heart of their lineup and limiting their production would really affect their game as a team.
My message to the Lasallian community
Please come out and support us in the finals! Having you guys there would be huge and it would really mean a whole lot to us! Let’s bring that championship back!
Game 1 of the finals will be on March 13, while Game 2 will be on March 16. If necessary, Game 3 will be played on March 20. All three games will be at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium at 12 nn.
