NATIONAL U’s Mick Natividad pours everything he’s got against the Maroons. --Nonie Reyes

UNIVERSITY of the Philippines (UP) and University of Santo Tomas (UST) stormed into the second round of UAAP Season 69 women’s softball with abbreviated shutout wins Saturday at the UST field in Manila.

UP made mincemeat of Ateneo, 17-0, in notching its fourth win in five games, and UST virtually did the same against University of the East (UE), 10-0, for its third victory in five matches.

A defending champion UP crew, however, found UST a tough nut to crack in men’s baseball yesterday at the Rizal Memorial diamond. UP nipped UST, 8-6, on the same day Ateneo redeemed itself with a 12-1 abbreviated win over Adamson.

UP appeared comfortably ahead at 8-1 in the first six innings, until UST exploded with five runs at the top of the seventh, giving the Maroons the scare. However, the Maroons kept their poise and coasted to their third win in four, the same slate as the Blue Eagles. UST dropped to 2-2, while Adamson and NU stood at 1-3.

Dione Macasu belted two home runs in the third and the fifth frames and Zenny Badajos, Ma. Cristina Daque and Alexis Causapin had one homer each for the Lady Maroons who were less merciless this time despite the rout over the Lady Eagles, whom they beat also in five innings in the first round, 22-3. 

Loser Kristine Drilon was peppered with 16 hits and the Lady Eagles, who could not stop their foes’ 10-run production in the third inning, committed seven errors in absorbing their fifth straight loss in the season.

UST, on the other hand, looked very much like the same team that played UE in the first round. The Tigresses also ripped UE, 10-0, the first time they met this season. The UE girls are now 1-4.

The Tigresses were calculating in scoring the lopsided win, scoring two runs in each of the first three frames, all practically by a UE crew that could not keep its composure and fell to a maze of catching errors.

With UE’s defense out of sync and UST’s offense focused on a Saturday morning breeze, the Tigresses were unstoppable furthermore in the fifth inning where they scattered four runs.

Danny Seigle got away with 27 points and the vengeful San Miguel Beermen pounded on the Red Bull Barakos, 109-82, last night in an emotionally-charged Game Three of their semifinal duel in the Talk ’N Text Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.

Davao solon: SBP a nonentity

No unity. Or for the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), no unity congress, for that matter, as the national federation put its foot down and stated it would not join the February 5 gathering of basketball stakeholders.

FOR Dennis Orcollo, it will be more than just the accolade of being the money-game king of the world he is focused at when he faces Yang Ching-shun in the Golden Pool Classic presents: “Orcollo vs. Yang, it’s all about the money… and more” from April 20 to 22 tentatively at the Gateway Mall in Cubao, Quezon City.

UNIVERSITY of the Philippines (UP) and University of Santo Tomas (UST) stormed into the second round of UAAP Season 69 women’s softball with abbreviated shutout wins Saturday at the UST field in Manila.

Outside

One of my earliest recollections of Charles Barkley was when he was in Philadelphia and the 76ers were playing Portland at the Spectrum. The Trailblazers were in their half-court set and the ball had swung to their then-rookie Mark Bryant who was working the ball to Jerome Kersey. Barkley, who was on top of the key