ADAMSON University revived its Finals hopes in the UAAP Season 85 Baseball tournament after taking care of University of Santo Tomas, 13-3 in abbr. 8th inning, for its sixth win of the season, Saturday at the UP Diliman Baseball Field.
The Soaring Falcons moved to third place with a 6-4 win-loss record.
A win by league-leading University of the Philippines (7-2) against De La Salle University (6-3) will force a playoff for the other Finals berth between the Falcons and the Green Batters.
However, a victory by the Green Batters will drop the Soaring Falcons to bronze.
“Sabi ko nga na kahit third place tayo, basta kailangan nating matalo ang UST. Kasi may chance pa naman kung tatalunin ng UP ang La Salle, magkakaroon ng playoffs,” coach Orlando Binarao said despite the uncertainties.
“Nag-connect-connect yung mga palo ngayon. Kung mga previous games nagawa nila, wala na kong problema. Sabi ko lalo na sa mga graduating, kung ito man last niyo, lalo na ng mga graduating, maganda pinakita. Mabuti na pinasok nila sa utak nila at tinrabaho nila,” the veteran coach continued.
And the work all started on a good defensive stand.
After taking back the lead at 4-3 at the bottom of the fourth inning, the Soaring Falcons limited the Golden Sox to two scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth to keep a hold of that slim advantage.
Adamson then used this confidence to eventually put their bats to work in the sixth inning to blow the game away for good. Shortstop John Matanguihan, relief pitcher Raymond Nerosa, and leftfielder Kean Matanguihan all scored twice in the said innings that saw a slim 4-3 Falcons’ advantage to a hefty 12-3 bubble.
Nerosa anchored the defense for the Falcons in the four innings he pitched, holding UST scoreless on two hits and striking out four batters in the process, after taking over from Richard Matic.
UST, who had a perfect second round prior to this defeat, ended with four wins against six losses. And the Jeff Santiago-mentored side had a dream start, scoring one run each in the first and second innings.
Three pitchers from the Golden Sox took care of the Adamson batters with relief pitcher John Mark Barsales getting most of the eight-run binge from the latter.
Second baseman Justine Rosales had most of the UST’s seven hits with three on four at-bats, including a solo home run in the first inning for the early lead. Graduating captain Mhigeil Cerda added two more on four at-bats.
Jayvee Selda, Geoffrey Apolinario, Adrian Aguilar, Reden Tapia, John Vargas, and Bryan Camarsi made their final go-around of the bases for the Golden Sox.
The Line:
Game 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
UST 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 x 3 7 5
AdU 1 0 2 1 0 5 3 1 x 13 15 4
