Last season’s runners-up, the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons, bounced back after a heartbreaking loss against the National University Lady Bulldogs in a 3-1 win against the De La Salle University Lady Batters. However, more than the game, the lady batters from Taft Avenue may have lost a pivotal piece in their campaign.
UP senior DC Cruz was on point all throught the game. The UP slugger was able to put the Lady Maroons on the board and the lead during the third inning. With one out, Angela Penales and MJ Abanes were able to connect on singles and later on steal prime scoring positions. Cruz was able to connect ona huge line drive double that brought in the two runners to put UP up 2-0. However, disaster struck for the Lady Batters as ace pitcher Jamica Arribas was hit by the ball causing her to leave the game for a short while.
The Lady Batters though did not go down without making a stand. The Lady Batter defense was able to execute a perfectly time double play that knocked off Chantal Bongat and Keir Ferrer to close out the top of the fourth inning.
In addition, La Salle was able to cut the UP lead to just a single run during the fifth. After a strikeout of Veronica Velasco, an error at second base gave Arisa Miranda first base and was able to steal second after. Next batter Judy Ramos brought home Miranda with a double to put La Salle on the board.
“In this game, sayang na we had nine people left on base,” former UP Lady Maroon Dennise Cruz said about the game. “Kelangan namin iimprove yung hitting and our signals.”
UP pitcher Cochise Diolata and the Lady Maroon defense did not allow their opponents to a single hit in the last two innings. On the other end, Jhenn Alinsod was able to take advantage of a La Salle error at the top of the seventh inning that paved the way for an insurance run to put UP up 3-1. During that sequence, La Salle center fielder Ramos was about to catch by Omul. As she was about to make the catch, Ramos got entangled with teammate Mary Joy Son resulting to a clash of knees. Ramos crumbled in pain and had to be taken to the Adventist Hospital. The MRI result has yet to be released as of publishing.
“Very important for us to win this game, especially coming from two losses lalo na from our game last Monday where we lost only by one,” Dennise Cruz, who recently retired from the game due to a herniated disk, shared. “We had more hits but a lot more errors. Ang inaayos namin ngayon was how to bring back that spirit and trying to focus more on the game rather than the externals.”
DC Cruz, the twin sister of Dennise, had an excellent outing as she went 2 of 3 at-bat. She connected on two doubles and had 2 RBI’s as well. On the defensive end, UP’s marathon women Cochise Diolata only allowed one hit all throughtout the game and had six strikeouts.
Looking forward to their game against the UST Tiger Softbelles (2-2) on Saturday, February 13, Cruz said that they need to be more focused against a tough Sandy Barredo-mentored squad. “We need to adjust faster and earlier in the game. Solid defense too, we need to protect our defense,” she said. “Mapapansin mo na maganda yung start tapos nawawala sa kalagitnaan, we need to be more consistent.”
The DLSU Lady Batters (0-4) face the Ateneo Lady Eagles (0-4) in the first game of the February 13 slate of games.
| TEAMS | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | R | H | E |
| UP (2-2) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| DLSU (0-4) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
