| TEAMS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E |
| UE (1-3) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |||||
| NU (2-1) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 2 |
Not wanting to be on the other end of back-to-back extra inning games, the National University Lady Bulldogs willed themselves back from an embarrassing loss at the hands of Adamson, turning back the University of the East Lady Warriors in eight innings, 6-5, Saturday morning at the Rizal Baseball Stadium in the city of Manila.
The Lady Bulldogs go up to 2-1 while the Lady Warriors dropped to 1-3.
“Talagang very exciting yung game. Natuwa ako kasi test ito ng dibdib ng team, dito mo makikita yung dibdib ng team. Mahirap pero maganda rin kasi dun tumitibay yung loob ng players,” second-year Lady Bulldogs head coach Egay delos Reyes said.
And the Lady Bulldogs had to muster enough strength to combat the fatigue of rallying back against the Edzel Bacarisas-mentored batters for almost the entire game.
Down 4-3 entering the bottom of the seventh inning, NU’s last batter Elvie Gequillo, who connected on a single to get on base, took advantage of back-to-back fielding errors of the UE defense for the tying run to extend the game.
“As the season goes on, yung mga ganung mga game ang nagbibigay ng kumpiyansa sa mga players tsaka sa isip,” Delos Reyes remarked.
Charlene Quintos, who had a head start at second base, was able to return the lead back to UE during the top end of the eighth but the Lady Bulldogs were not to be denied.
Against Lovely Redaja (0-2), runner Charles Tulalian punched in the tying run coming off an RBI single by Dyan Arago. After the next two batters were grounded out and struck out respectively, super sophomore connected on a powerful line drive single to center field to bring home Colleen Alilin for the win.
Last season’s Rookie of the Year Watson went an excellent 3-of-4 at-bat, scoring two runs and an RBI.
It was a struggle though during the first four innings as they were only afforded just two hits during the frame.
“Their pitchers did well. They were able to hold our batters and at the same time, may mga hits kami na, although it’s a hard hit, tapat e. May mga ganito talagang games,” reflected Delos Reyes.
The entire NU pitching staff was utilized in the game with middle relief pitcher Mary Ann Ramos striking out five batters and allowing just two hits.
“Ganun pa rin but we need to work with our middle-relief pitcher. Work on her spots. And yung batters namin, we’ll push them to keep on pushing from the start para hindi manlamig sa middle innings,” Delos Reyes added.
Roxzell Niloban went 2-of-3 at-bat while Quintos added 2 RBI’s.
NU will next face the Ateneo Lady Eagles (0-4) on Monday, February 12 at 10am. UE, on the other hand, will have a four-day break before facing the same team on Thursday, February 16 at 9am.
