Lady Bulldogs repel Falcons, cop nat’l softball crown

NATIONAL U fought back from three runs down with a late charge then leaned on Ethel Cuyo’s big hit in the sixth inning to hack out a thrilling 4-3 victory over Adamson and snare the Cebuana Lhuillier-ASAPHIL National Softball Intercollegiate Championships crown at the Sto. Niño Ballpark in Marikina late Friday.

The Lady Bulldogs yielded three runs after the fourth but pounced on Adamson’s catching errors in the bottom sixth and equalized at 3 on Clarifel Singh’s two RBIs before Cuyo came through with a hit to put NU on top before the Bustillos-based squad capped its come-frombehind win with a fly-out.

“I’d like to commend every team that participated in this tournament. Everyone did an impressive job in competing against each other and in showing the great potential of Philippine softball. Congratulations to National University and I hope to see everyone again next year,” said ASAPHIL and Cebuana Lhuillier president Jean Henri Lhuillier.

Meanwhile, NU’s Mean Ramos took the Best Pitcher award and emerged the league’s MVP while teammate Elsie dela Torre bagged the Best Hitter trophy and UP’s Mary Joy Abanes captured the Best Slugger honors. Other awardees were AdU’s Gelyn Lamata (Most Homeruns) and Diane Jane Balderama also of AdU (Most RBIs).

UP-Diliman placed third while PUP and Rizal Technological University ended up fourth and fifth, respectively.

It was a sorry loss for Adamson, which, after a scoreless first two innings, surged ahead with two runs in the third on a sacrifice hit by Diane Balderama coupled with an NU throwing error.

The Lady Falcons sustained their form and scored another run in the fourth after Leslie Benabaye batted-in a long ball for a January Cantor run before NU, which eased out UPDiliman, 8-3, in the semis, broke the spell with a run in the fifth courtesy of Nicole Ordoyo.