Joshua De Juras delivered on the mound, carrying Ateneo de Manila University to a see-saw 11-7 victory over Katipunan neighbor University of the Philippines in the UAAP Season 86 Baseball tournament on Sunday at the UP Baseball Field.
The second-year pitcher came on as a substitute at the opportune time to steer the Blue Eagles to its second straight win after losing its opener to go up to momentarily second place behind the undefeated University of Santo Tomas (2-0).
“Well, it was a good build-up from our last game. Our bats started talking again early and we capitalized on the UP errors. And our pitchers did a good job; we used two. We started with our rookie M (Senador) and we know that Josh (De Juras) will hold the fort for us to the end,” said Ateneo head coach Bocc Bernardo.
De Juras, a 22-year-old pitcher out of Paref Southridge School, was put into the mound after UP scored its fifth run and had to extricate himself from a dangerous situation after giving up first base to LM Basañes, ending up with the bases loaded.
Facing Fighting Maroons captain Ian Mercado and a slim 6-5 advantage, the senior pitcher was dragged to a full count before sending a huge inside pitch that the former swung at and missed.
“Ikaw ang pinaka-veteran ko na pitcher dito. I have to rely on you no matter what happens. When I put you in I want you to attack the pitchers like you’ve never pitched before,” Bernardo disclosed about what he told De Juras before the game.
That turned out to be the game-changer as Ateneo grabbed the lead for good when the squad took its turn on offense in the sixth.
Daniel Fabella, who came on for designated hitter Luis Capati, broke through a double to deep center field to score Enzo Montemayor and Luis Mendoza — two batter-runners who were previously given free pass — to turn a 6-all deadlock to a 9-6 margin, a lead they never relinquished.
The Fighting Maroons temporarily seized the lead in the top of the third inning with a four-run binge anchored on three hits from Basañes, Mercado, and first baseman Razhley Santos, but it was all the home side could manage as a tying run in the sixth inning went for naught with that De Juras heroics few plays after.
UP slipped to 1-2 in fifth place just ahead of Adamson’s 0-3.
The Line:
UP 0 0 4 0 1 1 1 0 0 – 7 9 4
Ateneo 0 2 4 0 0 3 1 1 x – 11 8 7
