The DLSU Green Batters faltered after taking an early lead in their opening game of the UAAP Season 87 Baseball Tournament against the UP Fighting Maroons, 15-6, earlier today, February 26, at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium.
Early season woes
New captain Agon De Vera started the game off hot with three scoreless innings, including one strikeout. On the batting side, La Salle struck first blood at the top of the second with a three-run period to take a 3-0 advantage. The first score came with the bases loaded after a wild pitch brought home DLSU catcher Renato Samuel. Rookie Yuan Sumague followed up with an RBI double to left field, while another wild pitch allowed Joseph Alcontin to cross home plate.
Following this period, UP relief pitcher Kobe Torres took the mound and shut down the Green Batters en route to a quality outing, totaling eight innings. His entrance shifted the momentum to the Fighting Maroons as they exploded in the bottom of the fourth with eight runs from nine hits. UP capitalized on multiple fielding errors from the infield while wearing out A. De Vera in the process to open up an 8-3 lead. Pitcher Peter Nonaillada came in for A. De Vera after the seventh run.
The Fighting Maroons went on to tack on two more runs off Nonaillada in the bottom of the fifth, courtesy of a sacrifice fly and an infield single, increasing their advantage to 10-3.
Losing momentum
With the Green Batters struggling to shut down the offense of the Fighting Maroons, their scoring drought continued on to the sixth inning as UP scored two runs, 12-3. In the seventh inning, Liam De Vera hit an RBI triple to break the dry spell, while Pio Villamiel hit a sacrifice flyout to cut the deficit, 12-4. However, it was too late for the Taft-based squad to issue a comeback as the lead of the Diliman-based squad swelled to nine after the eighth inning, leading to a final score of 15-6.
After dropping the first game DLSU Green Batters Head Coach Joseph Orillana shared his thoughts about the game, “Nagkaroon kami ng game plan namin. It just happened [na] yung first three innings [were] okay, [nung] medyo na-check na [yung] pitcher namin [at] hindi na natuloy ang depensa, doon nag-umpisa yung rally ng UP at doon sila nakabwelo.”
(We had our own game plan. It just happened that the first three innings were okay, but our pitcher was scouted and we could not continue with our defense, that is where the rally of UP started and where the momentum shifted.)
Coach Orillana emphasized that defense and presence of mind should be locked-in in order to have a better next game. He also pointed out that they need to improve their hitting, “Special yung hitting. ‘Yun ang kailangan na kailangan namin kasi doon sa pitcher, kaya naman namin [sabayan] pero doon kami medyo kulang sa hitting.”
(The hitting is special. That is what is really needed since that is where we came a bit short today in the hitting department.)
The DLSU Green Batters will be back in action this Sunday, March 2, against the ADMU Blue Eagles to score their first win this season at the same venue.
