Archers bag UAAP baseball title

La Salle squeezed the best from relief pitcher Francis Rosales yesterday as it downed University of the Philippines in a classic showdown, 10-9, and bagged the 2003 UAAP men’s baseball crown before a small but boisterous crowd at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Field.

Rosales, who nursed a sore right shoulder for most of the season, stepped up both on the plate and on the mound to guide the Archers to their third baseball title overall.

Rosales had three RBIs, including one at the bottom of the ninth, that leveled the count at 9-all, but it was his awesome pitching that spelled victory for La Salle.

"Masayang-masaya ako dahil natikman ko na rin kung paano mag-champion," said Rosales, a junior out of Marist High School in SSS Village, Marikina City. "Nagpapasalamat ako kay coach (Isaac Bacarisas) dahil binigyan niya ako ng ganitong pagkakataon."

After taking over the mound from starting pitcher Joseph Orillana, Rosales allowed only a run and three hits plus and registered three strikeouts in the last three innings to break the backs of the three-peat seeking Maroons.

"Nirereserba ko talaga si Francis (Rosales) kasi alam ko mapapagod at mapapagod din ang starting pitcher (Orillana) ko," said Bacarisas, a many-time member of the RP Blu Boys.

Before he was relieved, Orillana had amazingly pitched 47 straight innings. He pitched 10 innings when La Salle lost to UP and was denied a sweep of the tournament and the outright title, nine in a semifinal victory over Santo Tomas, another nine in Game One of the finals, 13 in Game Two, and six yesterday. He was crowned this year’s MVP and best pitcher.

Michael Gabriel hit to left field to score the 22-year-old Orillana, a southpaw who is also part of La Salle’s champion team three years back, for the game clincher, sending the Archers in a frenzy.

UP had several chances to shut the lights out of La Salle, managed this year by Philippine Tot Baseball Association president Rodolfo "Boy" Tingzon Jr., but four crucial errors in the final two innings gave its foe the opening it needed to steal the match.

Taking over the pitching chores from two-time MVP Darwin dela Calzada on the bottom of the third, Randy de Leon shut down the Archers in four straight innings, enabling the Maroons to turn a 2-6 deficit to a 7-6 lead on top of the seventh.

A two-run single by Roswald Palacol gave UP the lead while an RBI by Dela Calzada, who also belted a homer straight to the lower right wall in the second inning, made it a two-run lead going into the final two innings.

After de Leon swiftly took Joseph Hipol, who substituted for Eric Duclayan, and Gabriel out on the bottom of the eighth inning with his fastballs, the Maroons were already jumping in celebration.

But the Maroons suddenly blinked. They committed three key errors – one each by third baseman Melvin Lucre, de Leon and catcher Nino Tator — and allowed the Archers to sneak in two clutch runs for the equalizer.

UP had one more say after Tator made up for his earlier error with an RBI for a 9-8 cushion. But it turned out to be UP’s last hurrah as Rosales and Gabriel entered the fray to nail the final coffin.