UAAP baseball, softball title series on today
CAN Adamson University score a rare sweep of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s baseball and women’s softball championships?
Can De La Salle University and University of Santo Tomas (UST) deprived Adamson of fashioning out the feat the Falcons and the Lady during the varsity league’s 1997-1998 Season?
Answers to these questions will be known starting today when the Falcons go head-tohead against the Green Archers at the start of their best-of-three playoff for the men’s baseball crown at the Rizal Memorial diamond.
And the Lady Falcons battle the Tigress series for the women’s softball gonfalon, at the same historic eight-decade venue
The twin blue-ribbon matches start at 9 a.m. when the Lady Falcons and the Tigresses lock horns for the third time this season followed by the Archers-Falcon tussle at 11 o’clock.
The Lady Falcons are defending the soft- An Adamson University prepares to bat during the elimination round of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) softball tournament. ball title for eighth straight time since winning it back the title 2010 at the expense of, who else, but the Tigresses themselves.
Adamson is batting for its 12th baseball championship since having been admitted to the league in 1952, while La Salle for its eighth since bolting the NCAA to join UAAP in 1986.
The Archers swept the Falcons in their two meetings during the two-round elimination phase in baseball. So with the Lady Falcons against the Tigresses in softball.
Coaches of all four protagonists expressed their readiness for the big battles although none would like to offer any prediction as to the would-be outcome of the championship series.
“This is already the championship which is completely different from the elimination round. Bale wala na dito ang nangyari noong elimination round,” Lady Falcons coach Ana Santiago aptly put it.
Counterparts Orlando Binarao of Adamson and Joseph Orellana of La Salle, both in baseball, and Sandy Barredo of UST in softball agreed.
She and Binarao, Santiago added, have additional motivation and that is giving Adamson a double championship, which she said doesn’t come often in any sports in the UAAP calendar.
“Malaking karangalan din naman ang makakuha ng double championship at matagal nang hindi nananalo and Adamson noon. Baka sakali,” Santiago, who herself is gunning for her 14th UAAP plum, said.
She admitted though, and again, getting concurrence from the other mentors that win tantamount to winning 50 per cent of the goal.
“Sa best-of-three, kailangan maka-dalawang panalo para mag- champion, so pag nananlo ka sa una, isa na lang ang kailangan. Ganoon na nga yun,” Barredo butted in.