GAMEDAY RECAP
Uni-bikers Send Forward Packing
Uni-bikers 7, Forward 6
MANILA - Saturday's playoff trailer at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium was a dandy.
Christian De Leon's two-out run-scoring single off Taguig's Hashim Omandac broke a 6-6 seventh inning tie and capped a come from behind rally that catapulted the Dumaguete Uni-bikers into the South Division Championship and sent the Forward Taguig home early for the holidays.
Dumaguete fought back from a season-tying four runs down in the sixth inning to win a game in Series 2. The only other time this season that a team rallied from a four-run or more deficit to win a game occured on Nov 24 when the Marikina Shoemakers trailed the Makati Mariners 5-1 in the third inning before ironing out a 16-9 win.
The Uni-bikers' Kelly Culubong went 3-for-4 at the dish and drove home four runs. His two-out bases-clearing drive to center field off Forward starting pitcher Julius Visaya with Dumaguete trailing 6-2 in the sixth inning just bounced off the glove of Forward center fielder Alvin Bernardino and enabled the Uni-bikers to pull within 6-5. Marlon Caspillo then followed with a run-scoring single that tied the game.
"We were fortunate to get good breaks. It was a tough play, but [Bernardino's] dropped fly ball against the sun gave us the momentum we needed after blowing the early lead," said Culubong in tagalog.
What made Dumaguete's rally quite amazing was that all seven of its runs were scored with two outs.
The Uni-bikers drew first blood in the third inning on Visaya's throwing error and Culubong's rbi-single with runners in scoring position.
Momentum then swayed the Forward's way in the fourth frame when Culubong could not locate his pitches as he coughed up four runs on four walks and two hits to give Taguig a 4-2 lead.
Taguig padded its lead to 6-2 in the next inning on Visaya's one-out rbi single that chased Culubong and Erwin Cruz's sacrifice fly off reliever Jay Aranzanzo.
Aranzanzo earned the win with 4 2/3 effective innings despite some wildness on the hill. The young right-hander gave up three hits and issued five walks but kept the Forward off the scoreboard.
Culubong went 4 1/3 innings, was charged with all six runs, gave up five walks, and struck out three.
Visaya surrendered six runs, only one earned, on six hits, six walks, and struck out one. Omandac went 2 1/3 innings, gave up six hits, inlcuding the game-winner, and struck out one.
Dumaguete squares off with the Cebu Dolphins in next weekend's South Division Championship. The Dolphins have the twice-to-beat advantage.
GAMEDAY
| Sat, Dec 8, 2007 | ||||||||||||
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Taguig | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 4 |
| Dumaguete | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | x | 7 | 12 | 0 |
| WP: AranzanzoJ (2-1) LP: OmandacH (0-2) | ||||||||||||