Fishkill, N.Y. (May 25, 2006)- Junior
Jesse Darcy hurled his finest game of the season, stymieing the Rider offense all night as he posted a complete game shutout win in Manhattan's 5-0 Opening Round win at the 2006 Anaconda Sports MAAC Baseball Championships. The Jaspers improve to 30-21 with the win, becoming just the third Manhattan baseball team to reach the 30 win plateau.
Things began in atypical fashion, as Darcy walked the leadoff batter, Bryan Wagner. Wagner stole second during the ensuing at bat, but a mental lapse led to Wagner stepping off the base without calling time, and he was tagged out by
Ryan Marcoux for the first out of the game. Darcy would settle in from there on his way to his first shutout of the season.
Manhattan would score all the runs it would need in the bottom of the first.
Eric Nieto led off the game with a triple into the right field corner, and scored on
Nick Derba's RBI double. After an out,
John Fitzpatrick increased the lead to 3-0 with his MAAC leading 16th home run of the season, a laser over the left field wall. The round tripper moved the slugger into a tie for the all-time MAAC home run lead, extended his hitting streak to 13 games, and ran his streak of games with at least one RBI to 12.
Rider would post its best scoring opportunity in the top of the fifth, putting runners on second and third with one out, but Darcy would rise to the challenge, striking out the next batter before inducing a groundout to end the threat.
The Jaspers would add two insurance runs in the sixth. After
Matt Rizzotti reached on a fielder's choice, Fitzpatrick would double to put runners on second and third, before
Dom Lombardi would bloop a single to center to score both base runners and make the score 5-0.
Darcy picked up his fifth win of the season, scattering four hits while striking out four.
The second-seeded Jaspers advance to the Winner's Bracket and will take on top-seeded Le Moyne at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, May 26 at Dutchess County Stadium.
