On their opening game of the tournament, the DLSU Green Batters caught fire and defeated the UP Fighting Maroons via mercy rule, 12-2, earlier today at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Diamond.
Rookie pitcher Luis Miñana stood out as he recorded six strikeouts in six innings of work in his collegiate baseball debut.
Miñana impressed team captain Ignacio Escaño after his first outing as a Green Batter. “Props to Louie…He’s a rookie but he doesn’t play like one. He really stepped up,” expressed Escaño on their new starting pitcher.
At the start of the first inning, Miñana made quick work of UP’s first three batters, completing a 1-2-3 inning. La Salle then turned on the jets on offense, scoring six runs, which was highlighted by an Angelo Tantuico two-run double that was sent deep into left center, bringing home Escaño and Tuwi Park.
La Salle’s scoring run prompted the Fighting Maroons to substitute their starting pitcher Allen Mercado with Kenneth Mariñas.
The succeeding innings saw the Green Batters steadily extend their lead, as they scored a run each in the second and third innings.
The Fighting Maroons displayed their fighting spirit at the beginning of the fifth inning, as Gabby Yang hit a Run Batted In (RBI) triple and then scored on a wild pitch. However, their short run was thwarted as Miñana calmly retired the side.
The Taft-based squad responded by reclaiming the two runs, as a Gesmundo sac fly and a UP fielding error allowed Paolo Salud and Diego Lozano to score.
The sixth inning saw the Green Batters display their clean defense as they managed to put a stop to UP’s momentum.
With La Salle up by nine runs heading into the seventh inning, they made quick work of UP’s offense as Chavez grounded out to first, retiring the side. The Green Batters would then load the bases with Escaño at the bat, which resulted to an RBI that put La Salle up by 10 runs, prematurely putting the game to a stop due to mercy rule.
After the game, head coach Joseph Orellana was asked which aspects of the team he would like to see improved for their next game. He responded saying, “‘Wag lang sila mag relax porket lumamang lang sila ng malaki magre–relax na sila. Nawawala na yung init every inning. Nawawala yung pagiging aggressive dahil alam nila na malaki yung lamang. Kailangan tuloy tuloy yung init ng laro nila. Wag mawawala yung focus at aggressiveness and yung mental toughness nila.”
(They shouldn’t relax just because they gained a big lead. The fire in every inning starts to die down. The aggressiveness starts to die down as well because they knew they had a big lead. Their momentum has to go on all throughout. They shouldn’t lose their focus, aggressiveness, and mental toughness.)
The Green Batters hope to continue to assert their dominance against the National University Bulldogs on Wednesday, February 20, at 7am at the same venue.
