By Kyle Terwilliger
Variety News Staff

THE Greyhounds moved into a tie for first place with the Pepsi Giants on Tuesday as they defeated the Stingers 8 – 5.
The Greyhounds would be led by the pitching of JP Aguon who would go six complete innings giving up only one earned run on three hits and seven strikeouts. The game would start out a bit rocky for the Greyhound pitcher when he would walk the lead off batter Vince Bamba who would then come around and score on an RBI single by Luke Tedtaotao.
Aguon would then settle in allowing only one unearned run from there on. It was however, a completely different story for the Stingers starting pitcher Alan Benavente who would go only two complete innings giving up five earned runs on four hits.
In the bottom of the first the Greyhounds would jump out early on a single by Joey Taijeron who would then score on a ball hit by JT Tuquero that could not be handled by the Stingers. Tuquero would then score on a sacrifice fly hit by Greyhounds’ third baseman Rico Castro. With the first inning of the game complete the Greyhounds would lead 2 – 1.
The Greyhounds would add four more runs in the bottom of the second. Tony Yatar would lead off the inning with a walk. John Sarmiento would then reach base after being struck by a pitch. The third batter of the inning John Salas would also draw a walk to load the bases. After an infield fly hit by Jaylan Alvarez, Joey Taijeron would hit a sacrifice fly to left scoring Tony Yatar.
JT Tuquero would follow Taijeron’s sacrifice fly with an RBI single scoring John Sarmiento. John Salas would then score on the very next pitch as second baseman Alan Sarmiento would get an RBI single. Rico Castro would then drive in JT Tuquero with an RBI single.
The inning would end however when Alan Sarmiento tried to score from second base and was thrown out at home. The Stingers would go three up three down in the top of the third. In the bottom half of the inning the Greyhounds would face a different pitcher as the Stingers brought in Itu Tulenkuk. After Pete Guerrero drew a leadoff walk, John Salas would double him in bringing the score to seven to one after three complete innings of play.
The Stingers would add another run in the top of the fourth when Bruce Fejeran would score on an error after drawing the leadoff walk. The Greyhounds would then have back to back three up three down innings to make the score seven to two after five innings of play.
The Greyhounds would strike again in the bottom half of the sixth. After John Salas reached first on an error, Glen Fernandez who had replaced JT Tuquero would hit an RBI double bringing in Salas to give the Greyhounds an 8-2 lead going into the top of the seventh. In the top of the seventh the Stingers would add three runs on only one hit off of Greyhounds pitcher Paul Pangelinan.
Pangelinan would walk the first two batters off the inning, and would give up a single to Vince Bamba to load the bases for RJ Diego. Diego would roll the ball over for a grounder in the infield but would beat out the attempted double play. Lawrence Idelbong would score on the play.
Luke Tedtaotao and Bruce Fejeran would then reach base on back to back errors committed by the Greyhounds. Each error would allow a run to come in with Hamilton Jackson scoring on the first and RJ Diego scoring on the second. Paul Pangelinan would then retire Jacob San Nicolas to end the inning with the Greyhounds leading 8-5.
Neither team would score in the eighth inning setting the stage for an exciting ninth. After a fly out to begin the inning Vince Bamba would single and RJ Diego would follow up drawing a walk. With runners on first and second and the tying run at the plate Luke Tedtaotao would sky a pop fly to right field for the second out.
Bamba and Diego would then move up on a double steal putting two runners in scoring position with two outs with Stingers’ first baseman and clean up hitter Bruce Fejeran up to the plate.