Cagayan takes 1-0 lead in junior baseball finals

MANILA, Philippines – The Cagayan Carabaos dumped the Alabang Tigers, 9-2, to take a 1-0 lead in the short best-of-three Junior Baseball Philippines finals series Saturday at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium. The Carabaos, who went undefeated in six elimination round assignments, banked on their solid pitching rotation and exploded for five runs in the second inning to take control of the match. “Our advantage against them is really our pitchers. Now that we have won Game 1, I believe we can wrap the series in our next meeting," said team manager Ramil Mercado. Starting pitcher Amber Plaza gave up one run on two hits while striking out five in three innings of work on the mound before being relieved by Tsuyoshi Horibata, who pitched three scoreless innings behind one hit and a strikeout. Closer Aris Oruga completed the win in the seventh and was tagged with the Tigers’ other run on one hit and fanned one batter. The Tigers, who posted an 11-3 win over Marikina on Friday to earn the right of playing Cagayan in the finals, used four pitchers but all of them struggled and was tagged with a combined nine hits in the seven inning contest. Plaza was also the Carabaos’ leadoff batter. He went 3-of-4 scoring three runs while Bryan Lumbares, 2-of-4, had two runs and two RBIs. Alabang left fielder Marco Martinez put his team on the score board with an RBI single to score Ben Cope in the third inning while Pellos Remollo added one more in the seventh off a fielding error by Cagayan second baseman Jezreel Rosita. Game two is set on July 4 while Game three if necessary will be played on July 5. – GMANews.TV