FORGING ON. At the end of the first round of UAAP Season 76, defending champions Ateneo Blue Batter sit in second place. PHOTO BY ALEXIS A. CASAS.

LEGENDARY FOOTBALL coach Vince Lombardi once said, “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”

Though the names on the jerseys of this year’s Ateneo Baseball Team are missing a few of the familiar ones that helped last year’s roster write history, the Blue Batters are determined to prolong their reign as University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) champs.

Now that the first round of UAAP Season 76 eliminations is over, the Blue Batters currently sit in second place with a 4-1 win-loss record.  As the second round of action is set to begin, Ateneo is faced with the challenge of overtaking De La Salle University (DLSU), who ended the first round undefeated.

Round 1

The Blue Batters displayed what could be one of their strongest performances of the season thus far when they played against the Adamson Falcons in this year’s UAAP Baseball opener on January 5.

The Falcons took a beating not only from Ateneo’s offense but also from its solid defense. The Blue Batters scored a total of 13 runs and kept their opponent scoreless for the rest of the game, after allowing Adamson to score three quick runs in the first two innings of play.

After opening the season with a victory only fitting of champions, Ateneo was put to the test when made to face archrival DLSU. Heading into their game against the Blue Batters, DLSU was also coming off a victory. Before facing Ateneo, DLSU defeated last year’s title contenders, the National University (NU) Bulldogs.

Unfortunately for the Blue and White, DLSU proved to be the tougher team as they beat Ateneo, 13-6, in nine innings of play. The Green Archers capitalized on the slow start of the Blue Batters as they scored two quick runs off errors in the first inning to gain the lead.

As Ateneo’s struggles continued, DLSU opened the floodgates and found themselves on top by seven runs, entering the bottom of the fourth. Though the Blue Batters eventually found ways to send runners home throughout the rest of the game, the seven-point deficit that DLSU had established early on would be enough to hand the Blue Batters their first loss of the season.

Throughout the past two seasons, the team has been known to suffer not more than one loss during the elimination round. Dropping a game so early into the season, the Blue Batters found themselves in unfamiliar territory.

At this point, some of the team’s detractors may have begun to celebrate, arguing that it was unlikely that Ateneo would be able to repeat their championship performance from the year prior. However, the Ateneo Blue Batters are not looking to simply recreate history; they are here to build a legacy.

Test of character

Baseball has always been and always will be a game of patience. Babe Ruth said it best when he said, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”

People who are unfamiliar with the sport assume that the best teams are those with the ability to deliver a punch-out inning. But real fans know that this is never the case. The beauty of baseball lies in the fact that, at any moment, a single swing of the bat or a careful catch in the glove can completely turn the tides of the game.

According to Kevin Ramos, one of the captains of this year’s squad, the Blue Batters are working hard to make patience one of their strong suits. Their first test of patience came during that first game against DLSU. “Overconfidence really killed us that game. We dug our own grave and that won’t happen again,” shares Ramos.

“It was a good wake up call for us that we should not take our opponents lightly and treat each game like a championship game,” he continues. “Like Coach Luke Bernardo said in one of our locker room meetings, ‘It’s better to be anxious of winning the ballgame than having a mindset that you’re going to win.’ That way we stay grounded and trust each other in the field more.”

Eager to prove that last year’s feat was no fluke, the Ateneo Blue Batters proceeded to do what real champions do: Recognize their mistakes, work on their weaknesses and do their absolute best out on the field.

Ramos says, “I think that we haven’t played to our full potential yet but I know that we’re getting there. We just need to accept that we are a different team this year compared to last year, where we had a dominant pitcher in the field. Right now, we just need to play our game, stay focused and trust each other more.”

Forging on

After the crushing loss to DLSU, the Ateneo proceeded to defeat their next three opponents and end the first half of the season strong.

The first opponent that the Ateneo faced after their game against DLSU was the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons. When the game began, the Blue Batters found themselves in the middle of another slow start. In the first few innings, the Blue and White runners only found themselves on base following multiple errors by the UP pitcher. Fortunately, Blue Batter starting pitcher Andy Tan strapped the team onto his shoulders as he pitched a solid game of two walks and six strikeouts in seven innings played. He was able to buy the Ateneo offense some time, which eventually broke out to score 14 runs during the game, eight of which were scored after the fifth inning.

The Ateneo’s next challenge came in the form of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers. Despite being unable to enjoy the record of some of the top teams in this year’s competition, UST has proven itself to be a formidable opponent for any team competing in UAAP Baseball. The Ateneo, however, triumphed over the Tigers, 12-6, to improve to a win-loss record of 3-1 with one more game left to play in the first round of eliminations.

But before heading into the mid-season break, the Ateneo still had to go head-to-head with NU. Having developed a rivalry these past few years, the Ateneo came into the game knowing that they were going to be playing a long game against one of the league’s best pitchers, Aries Oruga.

At the top of the fifth inning, the score was at 3-2 and the bases all loaded for NU. The Bulldogs were in the perfect position to score and hand the Ateneo their second loss of the season. However, a pitching change sent veteran Blue Batter Adriane Bernardo to the mound, and NU’s offense proved incapable of capitalizing on the Ateneo’s defense.

In what was arguably on of the best plays of the Blue Batters this season, Bernardo decisively struck out what could have been the go-ahead single of the game. The Ateneo’s defense then held NU scoreless for the rest of the game to secure their fourth win of the season.

Out with the old, in with the new

Coming off the victory over NU, Bernardo shared a good point that he hopes the team can build on as the season progresses. “We were struggling from the very start of the season, but we keep our cool and focus during the games,” he says. “We just have to keep training and fix our mindset at one game at a time. We are in the top two but we know that we can perform better in our games.”

Co-captain Pelos Remollo shared the same sentiments. He said, “We are in it for that gold medal at the end. Our credo: No regrets.”

Though the Blue Batters are no longer the team they were a year ago, they are definitely made up of players who know who they are what they are made of.