De La Salle dominates UAAP wars

De La Salle snared two of three University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) crowns it eyed yesterday — the men’s baseball title it pocketed in dramatic and almost controversial fashion and the women’s badminton plum it bagged almost unnoticed yet in convincing manner.

Only men’s lawn tennis slipped the Green Archers’ hands as the Growling Tigers of Santo Tomas U (UST) reigned supreme in that event on a busy UAAP Sunday that saw the Archers and Tigers jostle at the 11th hour for the overall championship in one of the league’s most colorful and exciting seasons.

The Archers played catchup with focus and high spirits at the Rizal Memorial diamond, coming from behind to nip and dethrone University of the Philippines, 10-9, for their third men’s baseball crown to go with the first two they won in 1995 and 2000.

Also at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex Badminton Hall, De La Salle’s ladies completed a sweep of the eliminations almost without fanfare but ended their campaign with a bang.

The Lady Archers nipped their archrivals from Ateneo, 3-2, on the final day of badminton eliminations for their sixth straight win and the automatic championship. Ateneo settled for second with a 5-1 win-loss card, followed by UST in third with 4-2.

UP tucked the men’s badminton title also via a sweep of the eliminations, 6-0. The Maroons closed out their campaign with a 3-2 squeaker over Far Eastern U (FEU) yesterday, FEU wound up second with 5-1 and UST third with 4-2.

Over at the Rizal Sports Center in Pasig City, the Growling Tigers hailed a La Salle hat-trick with a 2-1 title victory in men’s lawn tennis.

Only Yannick Guba stood his ground for De La Salle with his 6-1, 6-1 opening singles victory over Marco Lua. Art Thomas Calingasan, the tournament most valuable player for having won all his matches in the season, and MacLean Barraquias beat the pair of Gino Alimarlo and Andre Cruz, 6-2, 6-2, and Pius Ocampo downed Nico Faller in the closing singles, 7-5, 7-5, to clinch for UST the title.

The Archers found themselves lurking at the Maroons’ shadows after seven innings, 6-8, but caught up with two runs each at the bottom eighth and ninth frames to foil the three-peat bid of the Maroons, who got furiously emotional in the ninth frame and almost lost their cool after the game.

It took a gem of a single again by Francis Rosales, the hero in De La Salle’s 4-3 Game Two squeaker, and a sacrifice fly by Mark Gabriel to notch those two runs that mattered most.

Rodriguez led off in the bottom ninth and drilled a double to centerfield. Rodriguez then rushed home for the tying run on a single to left field by Rosales, who, moments later was at the eye of a controversial call the Maroons’ bench hotly contested.

Rosales stole second on UP second baseman Roswald Palacol’s catching error. That drew the ire of the Maroons, particularly team manager Raj Singh, who vehemently argued with the second base umpire, it took some time before the argument was settled.