Dumaguete foils Manila, enters final

Dumaguete drew strength from Darwin dela Calzada’s superb pitching as it repeated over Manila with a pulsating 3-2 victory yesterday to arrange a title showdown with Batangas in Baseball Philippines’ Series 3 at the Rizal Ballpark.

Dela Calzada, 26, yielded six hits but came through with the biggest strikeout atop the ninth inning as the Unibikers completed their amazing run from the backdoor and into the best-of-three finale against the Bulls at 10:30 a.m. today.

“I’ve done this before, I’m glad I did it again,” said Dela Calzada, a native of San Roque, Marikina.

The 2007 Thailand Southeast Asian Games’ best hurler and former three-time UAAP MVP nearly hurled a shutout game but yielded three hits in the final frame that enabled the Sharks to break a scoring slump with a pair of runs.

Dela Calzada, who powered University of the Philippines to three UAAP titles in the late 90s, recovered his bearings though and fanned out catcher Rommel Roja for the final out.

Dela Calzada raised his fist in jubilation and his teammates rushed to him at the mound in celebration of the victory. The Felipe Antonio Remollo-owned club started the tournament with three straight losses.

“We never expected it. We’re just happy to be in the finals,” said 36-year-old playing manager Lito Pulgo.

Harbour Centre, IEI, PTC, The Heritage Park, Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs, San Mig Coffee, Welcoat Paints and Mizuno backed the tournament organized by Community Sports, Inc. with Sports Radio 918 as its media partner.

The Harbour Centre-backed Manila bungled a twice-to-beat advantage the team earned after topping the elimination round with a 10-1 (win-loss) slate.

Catcher Edmer del Socorro belted a single to right field to send in  Andro Cuyugan in the bottom first for the ice-breaker.

Then Kiko Ramos, at full count, blasted a Charlie Labrador fastball straight over the right field fence for a two-run homer that turned out the game winner.