Loudonville, N.Y. (March 31, 2007)- Manhattan moved into sole possession of first place in the MAAC with a double header sweep of Siena College this afternoon at Siena Field. The Jaspers won the first game, 5-3, taking advantage of five Saints errors, and completed the sweep with a 4-1 win behind a dominant pitching performance from Josh Santerre. Manhattan improves to 10-11 overall and 5-0 in MAAC play, while Siena drops to 0-20, 0-5 MAAC.
In the opener, Manhattan scored three runs in the second inning, taking advantage of two Siena errors. Ruben Perez drove in the first run with an RBI single, Nunzio Franzese drove in the second with an RBI groundout, and Perez scored the third on a Saint error.
Siena cut the deficit to a single run, 3-2, with single runs in the second and third innings.
The Jaspers would push across two important insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning, with Kevin Nieto leading off the inning with a triple to right center. He would later score on a Nick Derba RBI single, and Dom Lombardi plated Matt Rizzotti with an RBI sacrifice fly.
Those runs would prove vital, as Siena manufactured a run in the bottom of the ninth, but Brian Pendergast struck out the final batter looking to end the game and earn the save.
Jesse Darcy (2-0 MAAC) earned his second MAAC win in as many chances, working the first seven innings.
In the nightcap, Santerre (2-0 MAAC) was brilliant, allowing no earned runs on just three hits, all singles, while walking none and striking out a career-high 11 batters. The southpaw faced just one over the minimum over the final five innings, and struck out the side on the fourth.
The Jaspers again got on the board first, scoring a run in the top of the first, as Eric Nieto led off the game with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a fly out, and scored on a RBI sacrifice fly by Mike Garcia.
Siena would score its only run of the game, an unearned run, in the second.
Manhattan added single runs on the fourth, fifth, and seventh to seal the win. Nick Derba scored the first run on an error, Kevin Nieto tallied an RBI single to score the second, and Eric Nieto scored on an error for the third run.
The two teams conclude their three-game MAAC series tomorrow, Sunday, April 1. Manhattan and Siena will play one, nine-inning game beginning at 12 noon.
