UAAP baseball: Race for top 2 tightens with AdU, NU win

Adamson and National University made the big plays in their final at bat against separate foes to boost their respective drive for the twice-to-beat advantage in the semis of the 72nd UAAP baseball Thursday at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Park. Maclyn Samorin made a crucial hit to left field, scoring Jennald Pareja as the Falcons broke a 5-5 deadlock and pulled off a 6-5 win over La Salle.

The win was Adamson’s seventh in nine outings, the Falcons finding themselves at the helm after the fall of erstwhile co-leader University of the Philippines to NU. The Bulldogs pulled off a come-from-behind 9-8 win in two extended innings over UP to catch the Maroons at second with identical 6-3 win-loss slates. The Falcons actually enjoyed a 5-2 lead after four completed innings but allowed the Archers to make it a tight contest by giving up three runs in the fifth and sixth. Romeo Jasmin took the mound after Warren Vispo allowed five runs on six hits in a six-inning pitch and limited the Archers to just a hit and struck out four in the last three. La Salle, which has already sealed the fourth and final semis ticket, dropped to a 5-4 record with this setback. The Maroons’ ace hurler Vladimir Eguia fanned out 11 batters but that went for naught as he gave up back-to-back singles to rookie MJ Gante and Juan Leonardo Natividad, allowing the Bulldogs to climb back from a 0-7 deficit after the top of the fifth inning and steal the victory. The race for the top 2 slots in the Final Four and their corresponding twice-to-beat incentives won’t be settled until Sunday’s last games of the eliminations, which will see Adamson going up against UP and NU meeting Ateneo. A possible three-way tie for first may occur should UP pull one over Adamson and NU prevail over Ateneo. In this case, the quotient system will be used to break the deadlock and determine the top two seeds in the next round. - GMANews.TV