ENTERING THE postseason with a twice-to-beat disadvantage, the Ateneo Baseball Team (ABT) concluded their well-fought campaign with a 5-9 defeat against the National University (NU) batters, eliminating them from University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 86 Baseball Tournament title contention. The final-four bout was held last night at the University of the Philippines Diliman Baseball Field in Quezon City.
Last night’s battle closed off the journey of seasoned veterans Ethan Mitschiener, Joaquin Casanova, Geof Magsadia, Aloi Tuprio, Co-Captain Javi Limpo, and Team Captain Enzo Montemayor. Despite not reaching the finals, the Atenean batters expressed their gratitude for the team’s collective efforts in bouncing back from last year’s misfortunes.
“I’m proud of my teammates for giving it their all, […] We fought to the very end. […] The cards just weren’t dealt in our favor,” Co-Captain Limpo shared.
At the outset of their fiery affair, the ABT struggled to find their stride as ground outs and errors plagued the Blue and White side. In the bottom of the first inning, persistent miscues from the Atenean defense left three NU batters to skip past catcher Casanova and build a three-run lead, 0-3.
Following the second inning, the Blue Eagles finally found their rhythm, sending in liners and walks to give lead-off hitter Montemayor a bases-loaded at bat. With a chance to level the playing field, the Atenean skipper knocked in a deep fly ball to score two runs-batted-in (RBI) for the side, 2-3. However, the Sampaloc-based squad retorted in the bottom half with a Jherick Timban grounder to allow a run, 2-4.
Stepping on to the third inning, each team’s pitchers delivered exquisite displays on the mound to keep the scoring to a minimum. In the top of the third, the tenacious NU pitcher MJ Carolino managed to keep Ateneo hitless in the top of the frame. Meanwhile, Ateneo’s ace Gab Francisco delivered an arsenal of heaters and breaking balls to send only a single run past the Blue and White side, 2-5.
Towards the fourth inning, both sides failed to tally RBIs during their time at bat. However, rejuvenated NU batters took over in the fifth inning, delivering a daunting slugfest to weaken Ateneo’s conquest towards a finals berth. As the Blue Eagles retired the top of the fifth without a run in their favor, the twice-to-defeat Bulldogs turned on the jets with John Olazo’s double RBI to widen the deficit with a five-run lead, 7-2. In hopes of piling on the damage, Gio Gorpido knocked in one more run for the Sampaloc-based unit, 8-2.
For the 6-7-8 innings, another cold period took over as defensive measures from each unit delayed RBI’s from bleeding in. However, the leading squad managed to seep in one more run in the bottom of the seventh with Plaza’s groundout to send Herald Tenorio to home base, 9-2.
In the final inning for the Blue Eagles, the Loyola-Heights based hitters held their honor and fought until the end. As third hitter Montemayor drew a walk to load up the bases, Pablo Capati dialed in to secure a line-drive for a Rico Samson run, 3-9. Meanwhile, Joshua De Juras and Matt San Juan tallied in singles, scoring Casanova and Montemayor, 5-9. However, despite the well-contested effort, a prior double play and a strikeout courtesy of NU’s pitcher sealed ABT’s fate in this year’s competition.
Learning from the outcome, the Blue and White hope to carry over this chapter’s soaring displays at the ballpark in the upcoming season. Among the rookies of this year’s campaign, rookie pitcher Francisco expects a bright future for the team in the coming years.
“Mas mataas ‘yung level ng laro natin. Tapos siyempre, mas [magiging] kumpiyansa kami kasi siyempre mas motivated tayo ngayon. Pero ‘yun, mas tataas [pa lalo] ‘yung morale natin next season. Babawi kami,”Gab shared.
(The level of our game will increase […] and our morale for next season will be higher. We’ll make a comeback).
The Loyola Heights-based team closed this season with a third-place finish in the UAAP Season 86 Tournament, showing a tale of being able to triumph against adversity and out-perform last year’s end result.
Inning Scores:
Ateneo (5): 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 — 5 6 4
NU (9): 3 1 1 0 3 0 1 0 x — 9 8 4
