THE ATENEO Lady Eagles defense struggled to keep up a strong start, as they fell in the 6th inning, 9-2, to the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs via mercy rule.
Captain Ira Nevalga started on the mound for the Lady Eagles, as she kicked-off a strong start with 3 hitless innings.
The Blue and White got on the board in the 2nd inning through a Clarisse Dacanay RBI double that brought home Kat Villa-Real. The offensive promise continued in the 3rd as well, as the Lady Eagles managed to get runners at 2nd and 3rd with no outs. However, the Lady Bulldogs put in ace Mia Macapagal to take care of business for the rest of the game.
The game changed in the 4th inning when Ghene Nietes got NU’s first hit, which brought home Kristine Acuña, who was hit by a pitch to leadoff. Macapagal followed with an RBI single that gave NU the lead, which the Lady Bulldogs will hold onto until the end of the game.
The Lady Bulldogs padded on their lead in the top of the 5th, where the once formidable Lady Eagles’ defense began to crumble. The latter two of four consecutive errors gave NU their 3rd and 4th runs. A left field drive by Tulalian then gave the Lady Bulldogs a 5-1 lead through 4 and 1/2 innings.
The Blue and White side were able to register one more run that began with Clarisse Dacanay’s leadoff single. Noelle Dela Cruz pinch ran, and after stealing 2nd and 3rd, she was able to run home due to a hard collision at 1st base between Acuña and Baterina.
Acuña had her legs taken out as Baterina attempted to make it to 1st. The former lay on the ground for a few moments, but was able to walk off under her own power, though she did not return to action.
NU then finished off the game in the top of the 6th by after consecutive 2 RBI hits from pinch hitter Cuyos and leadoff hitter Aimee Watson. The 4-run 6th inning for NU brought the lead to 7, which led to the mercy rule being played after the Lady Eagles failed to score in the bottom half of the inning.
“Once na mag-start yung error, doon na namamatay… Once na mag-less errors na yung team, talagang gaganda yung kalabasan (Once the errors started, that’s where we began to lose… Once the team gets less errors, we will have a better showing),” said Coach Dione Macasu of the loss.
With the loss in their first game of Round 2, the Lady Eagles fall to (1-6) in the season. They will look to make up for this loss as they play archrivals De La Salle (DLSU) Lady Archers on Thursday, February 23, 11:30AM in the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium. The last meeting of those two teams saw DLSU take an 11-1 game in 5 innings.
Errors hurt Lady Eagles in 9-2 loss
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