Bulldogs mangle Maroons, reach baseball finals vs Falcons

National University produced its finest game yet this season as the Bulldogs shut out University of the Philippines, 16-0, in their knockout semis game to march into the 72nd UAAP baseball championship round Sunday at the Rizal Memorial field. The second-seeded Bulldogs will take on two-time defending champion Adamson in the best-of-three finals. The top seed Falcons reached the finals first after scoring a 10-6 win over No. 4 La Salle last Thursday.

Mick Natividad rebounded from a disappointing performance in the Bulldogs’ last meeting with the Maroons – a sorry 20-5 setback that forced Sunday’s KO match – even as their batters waxed hot and tagged three UP pitchers with 24 hits leading to the dominating victory. Given the confidence by the coaching staff, the veteran Natividad gave up just two hits in nine solid innings as he got back at the Maroons who peppered him with seven hits that produced 10 runs in just 2 1/3 inning of relief pitch in NU’s loss to the No. 3 UP last Thursday. Ram Casey Alipio drove in four runs on three hits, Jarus Inobio scored three runs and Natividad also slammed in two runs as the Bulldogs made mincemeat of the pitches thrown by Vladimir Eguia, Arnold Bruce and Jojo Apura. Eguia, who starred in the team's last win by allowing 10 hits in nine innings, was just a shadow of his old deadly self in this crucial encounter as he got tagged with 13 hits that produced eight runs in 6-1/3 innings. The Maroons dug deep at their bullpen but failed to find an answer to the NU batters as Bruce allowed eight hits and seven runs in 1-2/3 pitch before Apura stepped in the ninth and final inning but still failed to blank NU as he gave up a run on three hits. With the win, the Bulldogs kept their bid to end a long 43-year title drought alive. - GMANews.TV