THE ATENEO Lady Eagles fell, 2-1, in a hard-fought defensive battle against archrivals De La Salle Lady Archers on Thursday, February 23 at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium in Manila.
The second meeting between the arch rivals proved to be different from that of the Round 1 blowout, as the match saw strong pitching performances from DLSU ace Arribas, as well as Lady Eagle rookie Kevyn Lacson. The former gave up just one earned run, with the latter only being scored against on a single unearned run.
This unearned run in the bottom 5th inning proved to be the deciding one for the Lady Archers. It started off with a Macatangay single— one that ended a stretch of 12 hitless at-bats from the Green Archers’ side. Leadoff hitter Ejar then bunted between the plate and 3rd, but 3rd baseman Yla Trinidad fumbled the ball. Chaos ensued as Macatangay was caught between 2nd and 3rd, which was unoccupied by any defender. The throw was made towards 2nd, and upon seeing this, Macatangay took off for 3rd. Finally, an overthrow at 3rd allowed her to run home and score the insurance run.
“Nagkaroon lang ng miscall si Yla. Akala niya yung bunt, mag-fofoul kaya hindi niya kinuha. Bigla na-inside. So after noon, nagkaroon ng runner going 3rd na dapat nahuli dahil nasa middle yung runner (There was a miscall on the part of Yla [Trinidad]. She thought the bunt was going to be called foul, but it was called inside. After that, there was a runner going third we should’ve gotten because she was in the middle),” said Coach Dione Macasu about the incident that ultimately won DLSU the game.
La Salle’s other run— an earned run scored against Lady Eagles’ starting pitch Nicki Borromeo —was scored on an RBI single by Arribas that sent Velasco home in the first inning. Velasco got on base after being hit by a pitch, then moved to second on a single by Gomez before the RBI drive to right field by Arribas.
Ateneo’s offence started off strong, but the first three innings featured numerous missed opportunities for the Katipunan-based squad. They loaded the bases in the first inning, and were able to put runners on second base in the next two innings. However, they were unable to score early and left 5 total runners on base in the first 3 innings.
Their lone run came in the top of the 6th when Trinidad leadoff with a single. After a bunt by Kat Villa-Real moved her to second, rookie Jill San Juan hit a long left field shot for an RBI double.
“Good game pa rin. Yun lang, hindi masyadong naglabasan yung hitting today. Ang dami rin naming left on base. Kulang sa aggressiveness sa paluan. (They still played a good game, it’s just that the hits didn’t come out today. A lot of runners were left on base. The team lacked aggressiveness when batting),” Macasu said about the team’s performance.
With the loss, the Lady Eagles fall for the second time in a row, and are now 1-7 on the year. They have a chance to grab another win on Saturday, February 25 at 9:30 AM in the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium. They play against the University of the East (UE) Lady Warriors, who are the one team that the Lady Eagles defeated in Round 1, 6-5.
A key error from the Ateneo side proved to be the deciding factor in a DLSU 2-1 victory
https://storify.com/TheGUIDONSports/uaap-season-79-softball-ateneo-vs-dlsu-58af8d907a6ea2732c93a3cb
