How the Lady Falcons escaped defeat in Game 1 of 3-game title series vs UP

By EDIEG.ALINEA

The first thing to establish about na antiago is that there really is one.

he currently is the winningest softball coach in the with 1 title con uests while calling the shots fro the da son niversity ady alcons bench. he has a chance of raising that record to 1 in this eason 8 of the varsity league.

ast Tuesday a e 1 of the ady alcons best-of-three gold edal series against the niversity of the hilippines ady aroons, coach na, once again, showed why she has earned that any honors by aking a series of oves that spelled the ady alcons triu ph. The score was 1-all going into the lower half of the seventh and final inning and the oaring alcons in the offensive end. tarting and winning pitcher lory lon o, one of at least half-a-do en e bers of the hilippine lu irls in antiago s roster, had ust successfully shutout the ady aroons in their last two chances to grab the upper hand in the upper sixth and seventh.

t was, therefore, defend on coach na s next oves whether to win the ga e outright and gain big psychological edge of keeping the crown they captured three seasons ago before softball was reoved fro the calendar eueto Covid 1 pande ic.

r keep the tie and send the showdown into extra periods like what happened in their first encounter in the eli ination round won by following four-inning overti e played in nearly five hours.

o, don t want y girls go to that agoni ing o ent again, coach na ust ve thought. nd the uick thinking entor i ediately reconstructed her starting lineup by re oving licia ichon, a regular feature in her dreaded batting order but hardly a factor in her offensive rotation that ti e, and inserted centerfielder lai a Talisik to do the ob of at least aking it on base for a designed last ove to score a run and e erge triu phant.

The ove confused the ady aroons losing hurler acelyn alino, who in her desire to avoid aking an easy pitch for Talisik to connect, rolled her pitch to the ground instead, hitting one of the batter s legs. ith one on in first, antiago fielded adelaene o aug as substitute runner for Talisik.

u aug tried to steal second right after stepping on base forcing the backstopper to throw wild bringing pinch hitter ae angga up.

angga swang alino s fastball in her turn at bat, sending the leather to center and u aug ho e for the tie- reaking run and coach na and her ady alcons u ping in celebration of a hard-earned victory on the way to earning what could be their 1 th cha pionship, two short of ar astern nivdrsity record 21. o less than s representative to the board of anage ent, iko ia , expressed praises for coach na s coaching ability saying after the ady aroons loss and his appreciation to what the da son bench tactician had done to win. ell, hanga ako sa ginawa in coach na para analo kanina. he really has lifted the ady alcons to that win. agagaling na ana talaga sila. hat with a lineup with a nearly a do en ebers of ouf lu irls. ut this doesn t ean that we ve already lost. o. aban pa rin ka i, ia said in a post-ga e state ent shared by head coach onilon agkaliwagan. a tutoo lang, wala na ang brilliancy sa ginawa na in. ahat ng sport ay ga privilege na ibinibigay para analo ang tea s, Coach na hu bly said. e only have to avail of the at the right ti e and circu stances. a-tsa bahan lang na in.