Dolphins repeat over Uni-Bikers
by Jonas Terrado
Dolphins 17, Uni-Bikers 11
ALABANG - Brothers usually have their similarities but for Matt and Jay Laurel, having the same number of statistics in a baseball game is quite rare.
In a game that saw a league-record 13 home runs, the Laurels registered three homeruns each to help the hometown Alabang Tigers beat the Forward Taguig Patriots in a high-scoring 19-13 affair at the Alabang Country Club here.
The ex-Batangas Bull standouts also had similar numbers of three hits and five RBIs that was instrumental in helping the Tigers finished off their classification round campaign with a 4-6 record.
Alabang can clinch fourth spot, and another meeting with Taguig in the one-game playoff set next month, if the Dumaguete Uni-Bikers, who has a record of 3-6, lose to the Cebu Dolphins on Saturday.
Playing without national team members Ruel Batuto, Andoy Velasquez, Wilfredo Hidalgo and Ruben Angeles, it was Alabang's youth movement that took as they also got help from collegiate standouts Gian Llaguno and US-based brothers Carlos and Andres Borromeo.
Alabang made seven homers in the game with King Manay hitting the a solo homer in a five-run fifth inning.
Jay hit his first four-bagger on a three-run shot in the first frame, followed by two-run blast in the fifth inning. He notched his third round-tripper of the afternoon with a one-out, solo homer in the eighth frame.
Matt, meanwhile, drilled his first homerun in the third on a two-run shot then he hit another one two innings later before smacking his third long-ball in the eighth frame.
The Patriots, who slipped to 1-9 to end their classification round on a miserable note, had six homers in the contest with Fernando Badrina preventing an early stoppage of the game on a seventh-inning blast.
With two men on base and trailing 17-6, Badrina smashed a three-run shot off reliever Ramil Placides to keep the game longer.
Forward Taguig also missed the services of its RP team mainstays as Ernesto Binarao, Ferdinand Recto, Chris Jimenez and playing team manager Iking Jimenez decided to sit out for the second straight day.
It was the worst classification round record the Patriots posted in their two-year stint in the league. The previous mark was a 2-8 card in their debut performance in Series 2.