In a battle of UAAP baseball’s two rising programs, the Blue and White could not score a single run. National University’s Mike Gante pitched a complete game, en route to a 3-0 win over the Ateneo Blue Batters on December 5, 2010 at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Field.

Gante silenced the Ateneo bats with 12 strikeouts backed up by some excellent fielding. Mark Lumbre scored and batted in two runs himself in the fifth and seventh innings to give NU its second victory of the season.

His Blue Batter counterpart, Inigo Olivares, had a solid outing limiting NU to just three runs, but Ateneo just could not bring anyone home.

“I found my groove but I felt later on I could have done better and lasted longer,” said starting pitcher Olivares of his seven inning stint.

Ateneo’s best chance to stage a rally came in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Olivares was hit by the pitch—giving him a free pass to first base—then rookie Joshua Rapaport hit a double off the wall, to put runners in scoring positions with one out.

But as resilient as he has been the entire game, Gante struck out Blue Batters Kevin Ramos and Felipe Remollo to end the inning, crushing the Blue Batters’ best chance to score.

This proved to be the storyline for the Blue Batters’ so far. Having only won one game in three, defensively they have been solid, but they struggle to put hits together to bring in runs.

When asked about the team’s dilemma, Olivares said it’s a concern the team is taking very seriously. In the post-game meeting, the coaches said the team would focus on hitting this entire week during practice.

The Blue Batters hope they could get their act together come Thursday as they face off against in-form and league-leading UST.

Scores: