University of Philippines concluded the opening round of the UAAP Season 86 Baseball Tournament with a thrilling 7-5 victory over reigning champion De La Salle University on Sunday at UP Diliman Baseball Field.
The Fighting Maroons repeated their Season 85 first-round victory against the Green Batters, resulting in a three-way tie at 3-2 and 2-3 at the end of the first half of the qualifying games.
De La Salle, National University, and University of Santo Tomas are level in first to third places.
UP, Adamson University, and Ateneo de Manila University are just a game behind the upper half of the pack.
“Sa ngayon, hindi namin inisip ‘yung rematch. Ang inisip lang talaga namin ‘yung pag-angat namin sa rankings kasi medyo nasa baba kami,” said Fighting Maroons’ assistant coach Vlad Eguia on the squad’s game mindset.
“So kailangan ma-maintain ‘yung winning streak namin.”
With the game level at three runs apiece, the home side regained control after scoring four runs in the sixth inning.
Returning second-year third baseman VJ Mangahas started with a huge hit to the middle, just behind De La Salle’s second baseman JR Samuel.
Left-fielder Kiel Agojo sent Mangahas home, and a sacrifice fly from right-fielder Darren Mayo to his opposite number from the Green Batters scored Eman Javier and Agojo for the 6-3 advantage.
Smart baserunning from captain Ian Mercado and second baseman Nano Asuncion in the ensuing play eventually resulted in another run from the former to put up that margin they would not relinquish.
Mercado paced UP’s offense with a perfect 4-on-4 hitting clip, sending one home and crossing the plate once in that huge sixth inning.
However, it was the heads-up calls from rookie catcher Eman Javier throughout the evening that pulled the victory off for the Fighting Maroons.
Javier, a former member of the national U-15 squad, guided all three pitchers used by the home team to secure the win.
He even played through a foot injury in the final defensive inning
The 19-year-old product of First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities added a hit and a run to help UP’s cause.
The Green Batters had three innings to overhaul the deficit or even extend the game into extra innings. However, two runs on four hits in the next two innings would not cut it out.
Even a bases-loaded situation for De La Salle in the ninth frame turned out to be a huge putout play from Mangahas to end the more than three-hour-long battle.
The Lines:
DLSU 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 1 – 5 6 4
UP 3 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 x – 7 10 3
