BOILING SPRINGS, NC – The toils of thirteen-straight games on the road have set in for the Manhattan Jaspers as they drop the final pair of games in the four-outing series against the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs, Sunday afternoon, falling 3-2 and 7-4, at Bill Masters Field at John Henry Moss Stadium.
"Was a tough weekend for the Jaspers," said head coach
Dave Miller. "We had our opportunities with leads late and just wasn't meant to be. I'm very proud of how we are competing when we are struggling to get the bats going.
Noah Mattera and Connor Oneill pitched two great games today but we just couldn't get it done. On ward and upward and we just have to keep fighting until the bats get hot."
The Jaspers fall to 4-9 on the season, having lost its past five games. The Bulldogs snapped a five-game losing streak with its Friday night victory to open the series, and improve to 6-9 overall.
Manhattan wraps its fifteen-game road trek with two games against the No. 9 Clemson Tigers beginning on Tuesday. First pitch at Doug Kingsmore Stadium is set for 4 p.m. followed by a Wednesday evening meet-up at the same time.
Game One
Gardner-Webb marked the board first with a sac fly in the bottom of the second, but Manhattan clawed back, tying on an outfield error with the bases loaded, then taking a 2-1 lead on a sacrifice fly by
Trevor Santos.
The Bulldogs managed to put two on base in the bottom of the fifth, but a wall of defense backed up starter
Noah Mattera to keep the 'Dawgs at bay. However, a sac hit in the sixth broke through to tie, and Bulldog relief pitcher D. Pressley faced the minimum in the seventh to silence the Jaspers. A pair of singles in the final inning of play gave way to another late-rally victory for Gardner-Webb.
Mattera threw 6.0 innings, allowing just two runs on eight hits, with five strikeouts. Tyler Packen was charged with the loss.
Game Two
Two silent innings went by before a sac fly from
Drew Wyers pushed one across for Manhattan. Gardner-Webb capitalized on an error in the bottom half to knot the score at one all. A solo homer and an RBI double kept the momentum going for the Red and Black in the fourth inning, and they managed to tack on four more runs over the next three innings to take a 7-1 edge.
The Jaspers revived in the eighth with three RBI hits to shave the deficit, 7-4. Bulldog relief Chase Hansen put the tying run on base with a trio of walks sandwiched between two outs, but the Jaspers could not convert and dropped the final game of the series.
Wyers went 2-for-3 and
Landon Leonard went 2-for-4 to lead Manhattan's eight-hit outing.
Chase O'Neill was saddled with the loss.
