Ateneo sweeps La Salle for UAAP baseball three-peat

MANILA, Philippines – The Ateneo de Manila University baseball squad won their third straight UAAP title, sweeping rivals De La Salle University with a 3-2 Game two victory on Thursday, March 12.

Coming into the second game of the UAAP Season 77 Baseball finals on Thursday, March 12, Ateneo coach Randy Dizer’s intention was to ride the momentum they had created. 

He felt that if the series goes to a Game 3, DLSU would have the upper hand. He intimated that they were going to start with a surprise pitcher hoping to derail the green batters’ game plan. 

Righty pitcher Miguel Dumlao started the game for Ateneo. Although giving up 4 of the 5 hits posted by DLSU, Ateneo’s defense was able to hold their opponents to only two runs till the 5^th inning. 

La Salle was unable to string up their hits, allowing Ateneo to keep the game close before Atenean ace pitcher Andy Tan took over in the sixth.

After 5 innings, DLSU starter Kiko Gesmundo seemed to be in control of the game even if he gave up 2 hits and the team posted 3 errors. Ateneo only scored a run in the 3^rd courtesy of a single by Matt Laurel, knocking in Adrian Bernardo. 

Both teams changed sides rather quickly until the bottom of the fifth inning when at this point, it looked like it was anybody’s ball game.

A turning point of the game came at the sixth inning when Ateneo posted two hits, setting up a dangerous situation for DLSU. With men on first and second, Deo Remollo laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, advancing Orbeta and Laurel to 3^rd and 2^nd respectively.   

Still with one out, Ryon Tionloc belted a fly ball to shallow right field. Down by 1, Orbeta tagged up at third and sprinted home as soon as the ball was caught. A throw was made home to catch the streaking tying run. 

It seemed that there was enough time but a miscue ensued as cutter Carlos Munoz threw an errant pass to home, missing the target and allowing both runners to score. 

This was enough cushion for the boys from Katipunan as Andy Tan closed out the game, allowing just one run during his time on the mound.  

Ateneo once again threatened to score at the bottom of the 7^th inning but Munoz, who took over from Gesmundo, struck out 3 batters in the 7^th and 8^th inning to prevent further damage.

DLSU had one last chance to at least extend the game in the top of the 9^th inning when Imperial walked to first base after getting hit by a pitch. However, veteran shortstop, Adrian Bernardo doused all hopes of the Taft based team when a grounder was hit to him by lead-off batter Salud.  

Bernardo, faced with a fielder’s choice, decided to throw out the lead runner Yulo (who came in to replace Imperial as pinch runner) at third instead of the routine 6-3 put out. And as fate would have it, the last out was also an unassisted play once again to Bernardo for a force out at 2^nd base.

ADMU once again frustrated their arch-rivals by playing a solid defensive game. Their aggressive play allowed them to manufacture runs and pressure DLSU into committing errors. Although DLSU only posted 4 errors, they came at very crucial points of the game. 

The game was a classic Ateneo versus La Salle match up. It was very close from beginning to end. Both teams posted 5 hits and were separated by only 1 run. 

Winning their third consecutive championship clearly reflect the Ateneo team’s patience and championship experience. – Rappler.com