UST clinches ladies’ crown in RP softball

Aiza dela Torre pitched a two-hitter as University of Santo Tomas exacted sweet revenge over University of the Philippines, 2-0, yesterday to capture the women’s crown in the 2006 National Open Softball Championship at the Sto. Niño grounds in Marikina City.

The diminutive Dela Torre, 17, bested Dione Macasu in their duel at the mound with the latter yielding five hits which the UST clouters translated into two runs for the victory in the event organized by softball chief Harry Angping and backed by Purefoods, Monterey, Funchum, Accel and Cebuana Lhuillier Group of Companies.

"She really pitched well, that was the key," said UST coach Sandy Barredo of dela Torre, a second year Communication Arts student and a native of Bacolod City.

Joy Daquiado and national team standout Geda Valencia scored for the Tigresses in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively, as UST avenged its 0-4 loss to UP at the start of the page system semifinals earlier.

"It was sweet revenge for us," said Barredo, who finally steered the school to a title after several second-place finishes in the UAAP.

In men’s play, Pasig City slammed Laguna, 5-1, to seal the first berth in the finals before a wild-cheering hometown crowd at the Rosario grounds.

Ronnilon Pagkaliwagan was hit five times but struck out nine batters to beat national team mainstay Roger Rojas.

However, Rojas made up for that setback as he powered Laguna to a pulsating 3-2 win over Agoncillo to arrange a title showdown with Pasig. The Agoncillo batters scored a come-from-behind 5-4 win over Cebu.

After sweeping the elimination round, including a 3-1 win over UP, the Tigresses became a little too confident and paid dearly for it as the Lady Maroons hammered out a 4-0 win to clinch the first finals berth.

That sent UST, which placed third behind Adamson and UP in last year’s UAAP, into a match against Rizal to gain entry to the finals.

The Tigresses, however, lived up to the task and worked behind Dela Torre as they blasted the Rizal belles, 2-0, to set up titular showdown with the Lady Maroons.

Despite a no-relief job against Rizal, Barredo decided to stick it out with dela Torre, member of the RP team that beat Puerto Rico, 3-2, for the 2003 Little League World Series in Washington, who responded with a solid game on the mound.

"It was one of her best pitching games I’ve seen," said Barredo.