UAAP baseball: La Salle sweeps first round; UST wins

MANILA, Philippines — De La Salle withstood a last-gasp rally by University of the Philippines to win, 8-7, and complete a first-round sweep in the UAAP Season 76 baseball Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

The Green Archers took a comfortable 8-3 lead after eight innings but failed to score at the top of the ninth frame that allowed the Fighting Maroons to creep back in the match with a four-run surge.

Fortunately for the Archers, they built enough buffer to hold on en route to their fifth straight win while sending the Maroons to their third setback in four games.

Meanwhile, University of Santo Toms finally barged into the win column at the expense of Adamson, 12-5, thanks to a nine-run scoring binge in the fifth and sixth innings.

The Growling Tigers improved to 1-3 while the Falcons dropped into a tie with the Maroons.

La Salle seemed on its way to an easy win after it led, 5-1, but UP refused to go down without a fight behind Andrei Mikael Herrera as the Fighting Maroons capitalized on the Green Archers’ consecutive fielding errors.