Though he yielded five hits, the 17-year-old, skinny hurler from the San Ildefonso struck out 9 Tigers to emerge as the team’s biggest star.

The Maroons wrapped up the best-of-3 series, 21. It was the 9th title for the Maroons.

Robles, who is also a lefty like Eguia, was also impressive he fanned out five UP batters and surrendered only four hits. But lack of offensive support from his teammates did the Tigers in.

Eguia, a first year physical education student, appeared to be tense and tentative early in the match but turned lethal when needed most as he left five others stranded with his battfing pitches at the most crucial stage of the match.

Robles, a 21-year-old junior in the college of physical education, also did a show of his own show by retiring UP batters in 1-23 order for three consecutive innings.

But once the Maroons started to heat up offensively, there was no stopping them from winning the title as they drilled in two unearned runs at the bottom of the seventh – thanks to a well-executed squeeze play that was aided by pair of UST errors.

Erickson Eguia, Vladimir’s elder brother and the team’s designated hitter, opened that pivotal period by reaching first on a missed play by UST second baseman Mark Castillo and advanced to third on a single by first baseman Alvin Santos.

Jaycee Teruel, getting a signal from coach Emerson Barandoc to bunt, missed his first try. But the second one was perfect. That enabled Eguia to break the ice, 1-0. Santos also scored following a fielding error by UST shortstop Julius Ona.

The Tigers had a chance to at least equalize at the top of the next inning but were foiled by the Maroons’ stonewall-like defense.

The Maroons produced three more runs in the next inning, including a base-hit by the elder Eguia that accounted for UP’s lone earned run.

"Medyo nahirapan," said Barandoc. "As I said, whoever gets the hit wins will win the series and we got the needed hits in the homestretch kaya naman nanalo."