Box Score Box Score (HTML) | Box Score (PDF)South Orange, NJ - Manhattan rapped out a season-high 16 runs and 20 hits while senior RHP
Joey Rocchietti (Green Brook, NJ / Watchung Hills) fired seven scoreless innings in a 16-0 win over Lehigh at Owen T. Carroll Field.
Manhattan, which scored seven runs in the first inning, saw five different players record at least three hits in moving to 3-11 while the Mountain Hawks fall to 3-10.
In the game-changing first inning, the Jaspers scored seven runs on seven hits while sending 11 batters to the plate in grabbing control from the onset.
Junior
Brendan Bisset (New City, NY / Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) led off with a single before moving to third on a
Fabian Pena (So., Miami, FL / Calusa Prep) double. Senior
Evan Brown (
Ashburnham, MA / Bridgton Academy (ME)) followed with a run-scoring single to plate Bisset. Senior Matt Forlow (Cold Spring, NY / Haldane) then reached on a fielding error as Pena scored. Junior Michael Pfenninger (Flemington, NJ / Hunterdon Central) followed with a run-scoring single to plate Brown for the third run of the frame.
Freshman Dominic Palma (Hilton, NY / Hilton) and senior Jason Patnick (Hopewell, NJ / Hopewell Valley) kept the foot on the pedal for Manhattan with back-to-back RBI singles before freshman Alex Cerda (Miami, FL / Florida Christian School) drove in the sixth run of the frame with a sacrifice fly. Classmate Anthony Rocchietti (Green Brook, NJ / Watchung Hills) capped the seven-run first with a run-scoring ground out while giving his brother Joey all the support he would need for the afternoon.
Armed with a seven-run cushion, Joey Rocchietti (1-2) scattered seven hits while striking out six and not issuing a free pass over 7.0 innings of action in earning the win.
The Jaspers added two unearned runs in the fourth as Pena and Forlow each scored before Pena plated Patnick one inning later with a sacrifice fly in extending the lead out to 10-0.
Patnick delivered a sacrifice fly of his own in the sixth before Manhattan for all intents and purposes put the game away with four runs in the seventh.
Bisset walked to lead off the frame before Pena crushed his first home run of the year. Forlow would then triple and score on a Pfenninger RBI hit with junior Ryan Gronlier (Doral, FL / Doral Academy) capping the scoring in the seventh with a pinch-hit, run-scoring single.
In the top of the eighth, Bisset was at it again with a lead-off single before scoring on a Brown triple to provide the final 16-0 count.
Bisset (3-for-4; 3 runs), Pena (3-for-5; 3 runs; 3 RBI; 2 doubles; 1 HR), Pfenninger (3-for-6; 2 runs; 2 RBI), Palma (3-for-6; 2 runs; 1 double) and Patnick (3-for-4; 2 runs; 2 RBI; 1 double) all notched three hits for Manhattan while Brown finished up with two hits and two RBI.
Sophomore RHP Marc Galvan (Brielle, NJ / Manasquan) struck out two in an inning of relief while senior RHP Shawn Kanwisher (Washington, NJ / St. Joseph Regional) fired a perfect ninth to close out the 16-0 victory.
LHP Ethan Frohman (0-1) suffered the loss, allowing nine runs, five earned, in 3.2 innings of work. James Bleming and Matt Hand each had two hits to pace the Mountain Hawks on offense.
Manhattan is at Stony Brook on Tuesday, March 21 with opening pitch tabbed for 3:30 pm.
