The DLSU Lady Batters were buried by a 9-0 defeat to the AdU Lady Falcons to conclude their Round Two leg of the UAAP Season 87 Softball Tournament earlier today, March 29, at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium.
Ruthless opening
As Adamson started the top of the first inning, the defending champions quickly asserted their dominance by showcasing their expert batting. Neo May Mahinay hit a ground ball to left field that evaded Tiffany Labargan’s grasp to reach first base. Mahinay then quickly reached home base after more defensive mishaps by DLSU, 1-0. The bleeding then continued for La Salle as they were unable to tighten their defense, allowing their opponents to continue exploiting defensive frailties, 2-0. Aiming to stop the early momentum of their opponents, the Lady Batters refocused and quickly ended the top of the first inning with a flyout. However, the early damage had already been done. With DLSU now on the offense, the Green-and-White were unable to capitalize on the compact Adamsonian defense. Cassandra Inot, Labargan, and April Gonzales were all caught in their offensive efforts, concluding the first inning.
Returning to the offensive side, the Lady Falcons continued right where they had left off. DLSU attempted to play sharper defense but were ultimately no match for their opponent’s powerful hits. An errant defensive play from La Salle opened the floodgates for two more Adamson runs to home plate from Mea Tubongbanua and Mahinay, 4-0. Now shifting their focus to damage control, the Lady Batters eventually forced out three offensive attempts of their opponents to end the top of the second inning. Desperate to get on the scoreboard, the Taft-based contingent sent Gonzales, Joerjette Jordan, and Glecilyn Alipato to the plate. However, Adamson remained ruthless in their efforts in keeping La Salle quiet, forcing out all three Lasallian Batters to end the second inning.
Silent and silenced
At the top of the third inning, pitcher Jeryll Duller unfortunately quickly gave up two walks to Adamson, allowing them to have all bases loaded, as well as Remilie Herrero, who occupied the third base after her hit. After Herrero got batted in to score a run, Lady Falcon Tubongbanua went up last with the second and third bases occupied, 5-0. But the La Salle defense perfectly forced out her high hit, limiting Adamson to only one run in the third. At the bottom, the Lady Batters continued to struggle on the offense as Jazmin Visaya and Julianne Moral were immediately called out by Adamson’s flyout and fast tag, respectively. Duller made up for it as her grounder allowed her to get to first base, as she got swapped by Moral as a pinch runner. Inot went up last with a good hit and high hopes, but Moral was forced out before reaching second base, ending the third inning without scoring a run and remaining winless, 5-0.
Kicking off the fourth inning, the Lasallian defense saw some light after two consecutive tags on Chastene Jover and MJ Maguad before reaching first base. Jeelyn Pajotal then unleashed a stronger hit as she reached first base. DLSU’s pitcher immediately got plagued with errors to give up a walk to Roma Jane Cruz, with Pajotal pushed to second. As if not enough, Alaiza Talisik bats out a fly ball to get a tight RBI double, which was immediately followed up with another run for Adamson, 8-0. Despite a strikeout on Ma. Victoria Magbanua to the top of the fourth, Adamson still held on to a comfortable eight-run lead. At the bottom of the inning, the Taft-based squad continued to scramble offensively as they suffered quick tags and a strikeout to remain without a run, 8-0.
In the closing inning, La Salle’s defense seemed to warm up as two Adamsonian batters immediately got forced out before reaching first base. But Mae Langga struck at the cracks of DLSU’s defense as she lashed out a fly ball that allowed her to get to third base. With two bases occupied, Talisik exacted a hit to bat in Langga, but got caught to end their fifth offensive attempt with a lone run, 9-0. At the bottom of the inning, Lady Batter Alipato immediately got out a high hit but was pickled after a costly attempt to get to third base. From thereon, the succeeding batters from Taft got forced out by the San Marcelino defense, with a punctuation flyout on Duller, to deny the Lasallians a run throughout the last leg of the match. This resulted in the mercy rule due to a lopsided 9-0 affair in favor of the Lady Falcons.
Tied for bronze with a 3-5 record, the sluggers from Taft will ultimately face the UST Golden Tigresses for a bronze medal tiebreaker on Tuesday, April 1, with the time and venue yet to be announced.
