Raging Bulls are Series 5 champs

Bulls 12, Sharks 2

MANILA - The Batangas Bulls' campaign in Series 5 mirrored the way how they totally demolished the Manila Sharks in the Baseball Philippines Championship Series.

Completing one of the best performances in a single season, the Bulls completed the destruction of the Manila Sharks, 12-2, to claim the league's Series 5 crown at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium.

With pitcher Vladimir Eguia putting the Manila batters at bay and the offense scattering a bunch of hits all day long, Batangas put an end to one of the most decisive routs in a best-of-three championship series to claim its second title in team history.

Eguia held the underdog Sharks to just five hits while striking out six batters in a complete game effort to be adjudged as the BPCS Most Valuable Player. The 20-year old lefty out of the University of the Philippines was also rewarded as the circuit's 'best piitcher'.

But that was only half the story as Batangas peppered Manila pitchers Mick Natividad and Christian Galledo with 16 hits behind a quick four-run rally in the second inning and six runs in the last two frames to clinch the sweep.

Batangas' win put it alongside the Cebu Dolphins as the only two teams to capture two baseball championships. The Makati Mariners (now Alabang Tigers) is the other team to have bagged a title in the league's three-year history when it pulled off the feat in Series 1.

The Bulls were almost invincible as they posted a 13-1 record that saw them win all their ten games in a regular season that saw national team players Vio Roxas, Junifer Pinero, Hashim Omandac and Chris Canlas getting handed with an indefinite suspension by the league at midseason.

Their only loss came at the hands of the Dolphins in the first game of their play-off series but Batangas shook off the shocking loss by winning the last three games en route to the crown.

"At first we thought we were the underdogs, but once we won our first seven or so games and the national team players got suspended, we felt that we could win it all," said Batangas team manager Randy Dizer, who was named as Series 5's best tactician.

Eguia, who was once named the University Athletics Association of the Philippines MVP when he led UP to its last title three years ago, threw 123 pitches despite having to go the full distance because of an injury to the team's other heralded hurler, Romeo Jasmin.

The sidearm-throwing Jasmin, who started as the team's rightfielder, left the game in the first inning after sustaining a pulled left hamstring while attempting to reach first base safely. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a bright day for the Nueva Ecija native as the league awarded him the MVP plum after posting a 2-0 record with a 1.70 earned run average on the mound despite a .233 batting average with three runs batted in.

Jasmin, acquired in the offseason from the Alabang Tigers, rewarded his new team with solid performances for the squad during Series 5 that earned him raves from Dizer.

"When we got him, it really solidified our pitching rotation because it helped us rest our other pitchers," Dizer said of Jasmin, a former UAAP MVP and Best Pitcher for current two-time defending champion Adamson University.

Michael de Rossi and Jose Jose conspired during a four-run, four-hit second inning with a pair of two-run singles to build a 4-0 lead that started Batangas' scoring spree.

With the bases loaded and with no outs, de Rossi smashed a pitch by Natividad into left field to score Ericson Eguia and Justin Zialcita. Jose followed suit with a drive down the left field line that brought home Randy de Leon and de Rossi.

A pair of runs in the next two frames padded the Bulls' lead to 6-0.

The Sharks finally broke the ice in the bottom of the sixth when Marvin Malig drilled a one-out single to right field that scored leadoff man Jennald Pareja and Christian Galedo to cut the margin to 6-2. But Manila failed to narrow the gap further, leaving two men on base as playing team manager Jhoel Palanog struck out to end the threat.

Batangas then put the game out of reach with a four-run eighth inning to make it 10-2, thanks to a two-run single by Carlo Banzon aided by two of five Sharks errors.

Jojo Apura, who had been superb in the postseason, settled the final score with a two-out, two-run double in the ninth frame.

"Almost everyone delivered in this came plus hits came in a big way for us," Dizer said.

The Bulls took the series opener, 13-4, last Sunday behind a seven-run fifth inning to set up another impressive showing against a Sharks side that was likewise short-handed without national team members Charlie Labrador, Nino Tator, Francis Candela and Rommel Roja.

Meanwhile, brothers Jay and Matt Laurel of the Alabang Tigers received the other major awards of Series 5. Jay bagged two honors, that of 'best hitter' (.515 BA) and 'most runs batted in' (13), while Matt smashed six long balls and was named the 'home run king'.

Dumaguete's Saxon Omandac took the 'most stolen bases' award while Jojo Abaa was recognized as the 'best umpire'.

BOXSCORE

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