FISHKILL, NY – The Monmouth baseball team got four hits from Aidan Favia (Short Hills, NJ/Millburn) but fell to #6 Manhattan, 12-8 at Dutchess Stadium Wednesday afternoon in the first game of the 2016 MAAC Tournament. With the loss, MU drops to the loser's bracket and will play the loser of today's second game between #4 Canisius and #5 Marist.
The Hawks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third after Favia dropped a single into right and Grant Lamberton (Newark, DE/Salesianum) dove into first to beat out an infield single. Cary Jacobson (Los Angeles, CA/Palisades) plated the first run with a perfect bunt for a base hit, and Dan Shea (Wilmington, DE/Salesianum) lined a single into right to score another. Pete Papcun (Brick, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) scored a third with a ground out to make it 3-0.
The Jaspers hung a six-run fourth inning up on Frank Trimarco (Merrick, NY/Sanford H. Calhoun), who had tossed zeroes for the first three innings. Jason Patnick hit a two-run home run, and Jose Carrera later tripled home two to make it 4-3 Jaspers, a lead they would not relinquish. It extended to 6-3 on a Christian Santisteban RBI double and an RBI ground out from Richie Barrella.
Chris Reynolds hit a two-run double in the fifth before the Hawks started to battle back. Trailing 8-3, MU got two runs back in the fifth following a Papcun run-scoring double to center. Papcun scored on Ryan Bailey's (Mount Kisco, NY/Fox Lane) ground out to cut it to 8-5, and Lamberton notched an RBI ground out after a Favia triple to make it 8-6 after six.
Manhattan scored four important insurance runs, with Fabian Pena bouncing a two-run single through a drawn-in Monmouth infield, and adding two more on a Reynolds double and Carrera single to score two in the ninth.
The Hawks did not go quietly in the ninth, scoring when Chris Gaetano (Madison Township, PA/Scranton Preparatory) sent his second double of the game up the alley to make it 12-7. Papcun singled up the middle to make it 12-8, and the Hawks got the tying run to the plate with one away but could not score.
Trimarco took the loss while Tom Cosgrove got the win for Manhattan. In relief, Jordan McCrum (Dallas, PA/Dallas Senior) notched six strikeouts in three innings, while Shawn Kanwisher got the save after three innings out of the bullpen. Reynolds drove in three for the Jaspers, while Carrera had three hits and three RBI's. Favia was 4-for-5 for Monmouth with two runs scored, while Papcun drove in three with two hits. Shea added three hits for the Blue and White.
MU will play an elimination game tomorrow at 3:30 against the loser of today's game between #4 Canisius and #5 Marist.
