Uni-bikers force rubber match
Uni-bikers 10, Patriots 5
MANILA - The Dumaguete Uni-Bikers asserted their dominance of the Forward Taguig Patriots for the second straight day after securing a 10-5 victory and thus forced their first round playoff series into a sudden death match Sunday afternoon at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium.
Dumaguete leaned on the performance of their top pitcher Darwin dela Calzada while Bambol Servo and Andro Cuyugan led the offense that produced 15 hits in the contest to pulsate the Patriots for the third straight time this season.
With the victory, the Uni-Bikers extended their series against Taguig, which held a twice-to-beat incentive, into a winner-take-all match for the semi-final slot on Saturday morning.
The winner meets the league-leading Manila Sharks in the next round.
Dela Calzada cruised through six innings allowing just two runs on six hits and striking out three batters in the process.
On the other hand, Servo collected two hits and three runs batted in to pace the Uni-Bikers offense while Cuyugan, also a right fielder for the RP national team, went 4-for-4 and scored five runs.
Servo, the 34-year old starting shortstop, broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning on a double to left field off losing pitcher Ernesto Binarao that scored Denver Largo from third and Cuyugan from second base to grab a 3-1 edge.
In the fifth inning, the Uni-Bikers padded their lead to 4-2 when Servo hit another shot to left to send home Cuyugan for the fourth time in the game with one out.
Dumaguete then pulled away with a four-run sixth frame to grab a 9-2 lead after Francisco Ramos, Justine Payongayong, Largo, and Cuyugan all scored while Taguig struggled on the field with two errors on poor throws by third baseman Rizel Santos and catcher Melvin de Castro.
But the Patriots made the game interesting a bit in the eighth after a three-run output, but a run-scoring single by Culubong in the lower half of the frame settled the final score as he drove home Cuyugan from third base.
Edmer del Socorro gave Dumaguete its first run in the opening inning on a two-out single to drive home Cuyugan.
However, Forward Taguig tied it up after Ernesto Binarao scored on a throwing error in the second inning.
BOXSCORE
| Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium |
||||||||||||
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Taguig | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 4 |
| Dumaguete | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | x | 10 | 15 | 1 |
| WP: DelaCalzada (4-4) LP: BinaraoE (2-3) | ||||||||||||
Official line score approved by Baseball Philippines Office of the Commissioner