Brooklyn, NY - Sophomore Matt Padre's (Flemington, NJ / Hunterdon Prep) two-out, two run single lifted Manhattan to a 3-2 come-from-behind win over defending NEC Champion LIU Brooklyn at the LIU Field.
Trailing 1-0 in the eighth inning, the Jaspers loaded up the bases with two outs on a pair errors and a free pass to graduate student Shawn Blake (Stratford, CT / Elon). Freshman Nick Cimillo (Airmont, NY / Suffern) was then plunked to tie it up, before Padre's aforementioned two-run single gave the visitors a 3-1 advantage.
The Blackbirds would get one run back in the ninth, but stranded a pair as senior Joe DiTorrice (Montgomery, NJ / Montgomery) fanned the final batter of the game to earn his second victory of the year.
DiTorrice struck out three, against no walks, while yielding one run on six hits over 4.0 innings. Senior RHP Marc Galvan (Brielle, NJ / Manasquan) started and was strong over 5.0 innings, surrendering just one run on five hits with six strikeouts.
LIU Brooklyn pitching struck out 18 on the day while the offense rapped out 11 hits, but was done in by two costly errors.
Blake doubled, walked and scored the winning run to pace Manhattan at the plate.
The Jaspers have now won three-straight games, with each coming by two runs or less, in moving to 7-15 on the year while the Blackbirds fall to 7-14.
Manhattan will play at Columbia on Wednesday, March 27 at 3:30 pm.