Air Force, UP gain softball opener

MANILA, Philippines – Defending men’s champion Air Force and reigning women’s titlist University of the Philippines scored contrasting victories at the start of the Cebuana Lhuillier National Open Softball Championships yesterday.

The Airmen needed only four innings in making short work of Antipolo City, 12-2, as they opened their title-retention bid with a flourish at the Rosario Sports Complex in Pasig.

The Lady Maroons had to exert extra effort in subduing a fighting Adamson-Manila Lady Falcons in a tiebreak, 3-1, played under heavy rains at the Sto. Niño softball fields in nearby Marikina.

Caught flat-footed by their rivals’ first inning siege where Philippine Blu Boys pitcher Sonny Acuña surrendered three hits that produced Antipolo’s early 2-0 lead, the Airmen went to Marvin Sta. Maria who hurled a no-hit, no-run three-inning relief that abruptly stopped the Antipolo clouters in their tracks.

The Airmen scored five runs in the lower half of the first and never looked back as they crossed the plate seven more times in the remaining frames.

Over at the soggy Sto. Niño field, the Lady Maroons scored two runs at the bottom of the extra eighth, breaking a 1-all stalemate that marred the contest after seven completed innings.

Rains in both Pasig and Marikina arenas suspended the opening day action in the 27-team tournament organized by the Amateur Softball-Association-Philippines and supported by Cebuana Lhuillier, Pera Padala, Phiten, Le Soleil de Boracay, Just Jewels and Mizuno.

The Inaugural day proved bleak for Antipolo Rizal Technological University Team 1 shutout Antipolo, 5-0, in the other completed matchup at the Rosario Complex.

Also at the Sto. Nino fields, Zamboanga City massacred St. Louis University of Baguio, 17-1 in an abbreviated three-inning murder, while the Legends of Pampanga, likewise, handed the Pines City a double whammy with an 11-2 thrashing of UC-Baguio.