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SOUTHPAW Joseph Orillana pulled through in a pitching
duel with RP mainstay Charlie Labrador as Cebu stopped fancied
Manila, 6-3, to take the opener in their best-of-three title
showdown in the Baseball Philippines’ Series 2 Wednesday at the
Rizal Baseball Stadium.
The 27-year-old Orillana yielded
three hits and fanned out six batters, including one against first
baseman Marvin Malig that averted what could have been a disastrous
stint at the bottom of the eighth inning.
“I didn’t pitch inside the
strike zone. I just focused on sending it to the corners and it
worked,” said Orillano, a member of De La Salle’s 2000 and 2003
UAAP champion teams, in Filipino.
Orillana capped his heroics at
the bottom of the eighth by striking out Edward Landicho with two
outs and the bases loaded with the Dolphins preserving a 4-3 lead.
It was the fifth victory in six
pitching jobs for Orillana, a native of Antipolo City, after coming
into the game with 45 strikeouts in seven matches.
“It was a good pitching job, I
have to give it to him [Orillana],” said Cebu team manager Isaac
Bacarisas, who steered the RP softball team to the gold medal in the
recently concluded Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.
It also avenged Cebu’s three
straight setbacks to Manila this season, including two in this
conference organized by Community Sports Inc.
Labrador had five strikeouts but
yielded 15 hits to absorb his second defeat against three wins.
Jerome Bacarisas fired up the
plate with three RBIs (runs-batted in), including a two-run double
that capped a three-run splurge in the eighth while Jolash Ponce
went four-of-five bat, including an RBI.
The Dolphins, who edged the
Dumaguete Unibikers, 8-7, in Saturday’s semifinals, gun for a
sweep in Saturday’s Game 2.
After Ponce blasted a two-out
double to left field, Migs Corcuera sneaked in a one-run single to
turn a one-all deadlock to a 2-1 lead in the eighth.
Corcuera and Bacarisas then
scored from Emerson Atilano’s double, giving the Dolphins a 4-1
cushion.
The Sharks refused to give up.
With two outs at the bottom of the eighth, they turned to a two-run
double by Pilot series best hitter Nińo Tator to left field to move
within, 3-4. But Orillana fanned out Malig, leaving Edward Landicho,
Tator and Elcid Angeles on the bases.
A wild pitch by closer Romeo
Jasmin and one-run double by Ponce atop the ninth gave the Dolphins
two more runs before Orillana put out the next three Manila batters.
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