PRINCESS ANNE, Md.—Manhattan will leave Maryland with a 2-2 weekend, dropping game one of today's doubleheader to Lehigh, 5-4, but blitzed UMES on the backend, 15-6.
GAME ONE
The Mountain Hawks got an early jump on the Jaspers again, collecting three runs in the third inning thanks to an RBI single followed by an RBI double. Lehigh also brought one more home in the seventh to take a 4-0 lead.
Manhattan (2-8) got on the board in its half of the seventh.
Trevor Santos led off the inning with a single up the middle; he was moved over to second on a
Trevor Hansen groundout and then brought around on a
Daniel Perez single to center field for his seventh RBI of the season.
Manhattan cut the lead to two, 4-2, thanks to an RBI double from
Pete Durocher, which brought home
Jack Lynch. It serves as Durocher's first RBI this season.
Lehigh tacked on one more run in the top of the ninth, giving Manhattan a 5-2 hole to attempt to work out of in the home half of the ninth. Drew Perez drew a leadoff walk, followed by another walk by
Logan Pfannenbecker.
Frankie Marinelli drew a third walk of the inning to load the bases.
Manhattan got the first run they needed thanks to a bases-loaded walk by
Ryan Ash, bringing home Perez and the Jaspers within two, 5-3. Manhattan got another run off a Lynch sac-fly, bringing around Pfannenbecker, bringing Durocher into the batter's box with two outs, the tying run on second, and the winning run on first. Still, he struck out swinging, ending the Jasper comeback bid.
GAME TWO
UMES put a pair of runs on the board in the home half of the first inning; that was the calm before the storm as a flurry of Jasper offense was brewing in the Manhattan dugout.
Frankie Marinelli drew a leadoff free base in the third inning and took second for himself. He then moved over 90 feet to third on a wild pitch. After that,
Jack Lynch repeated Marinelli's sequence. Marinelli was brought around by Durocher, with Lynch assuming Marinelli's previous spot, which was just the beginning. The Jaspers once again stole second, this time Durocher took off from first, and he was brought home, alongside Lynch, by a Perez single, making the score 3-2 Manhattan.
Like his teammate prior, Perez stole second, but this time it was a double steal, with Santos stealing home congruently, making it 4-2.
Manhattan kept rolling, with
Jacob Radziewicz singling to bring around Perez. With Manhattan now batting around, Marinelli doubled to bring Radziewicz around to score. Manhattan finished the inning up 6-2.
Over the next three innings, Manhattan would put nine more runs on the board.
When it was all said and done, the Jaspers stole an incredible 13 bags against the Hawks, with Durocher leading the way with four. Durocher finished with a pair of RBI, while Perez owned three, including a solo blast in the sixth inning.
The pitching staff combined for 13 punchouts, with starter
Darien Rorabeck accounting for five while
Oliver Pudvar and
John Kwiatkowski each sat four down, with the latter earning the win this evening.
Next for the Jaspers is a weekend on national television when they head down to Austin, Texas, for a weekend series with national powerhouse, Texas, on Longhorn Network from Mar. 10-12.
Follow Us on Social Media: For the latest on the Manhattan College baseball program, follow the Jaspers on Twitter
@JaspersBaseball and Instagram
@Jaspersbaseball.
