Wappingers Falls, NY - Fueled by home runs from sophomore Fabian Pena (Miami, FL / Calusa Prep) and senior Matt Forlow (Cold Spring, NY / Haldane), Manhattan rolled to a 7-2 win over Quinnipiac in the series finale between the teams at Dutchess Stadium.
The Jaspers improve to 14-31 and 8-10 in the MAAC while the Bobcats fall to 17-28 and 10-11 in the league.
Pena quickly opened the scoring with his third homer of the year, a two-out, two-run shot to left field in the bottom of the first.
Manhattan added to the lead with three runs in the bottom of the third with another big two-out hit. Senior Jose Carrera (Miami, FL / St. Brendan) led off with a single through the left side before moving to third on a Brendan Bisset (New City, NY / Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) sacrifice and a well-placed ground out. Following a free pass to Pena, senior Matt Forlow (Cold Spring, NY / Haldane) crushed his second home run of the year, a three-run blast to left field in building a 5-0 advantage.
After allowing a pair of one-out singles in the first, senior RHP Joey Rocchietti (Green Brook, NJ / Watchung Hills) retired the next 10 batters he faced before running into trouble in the fourth. Joe Burns reached via a two-out single before scoring on a Brian Moskey RBI double. However, Rocchietti would limit the damage to just one run as he promptly struck out Ben Gibson to end the threat.
Rocchietti would set the side down in order in the next two frames before working around a leadoff double in the seventh and a one-out single in the eighth.
The Jaspers then put the game out of reach in the bottom part of the eighth with two runs. Bisset led off with a single before Evan Brown (Sr., Asburnham, MA / Bridgton Academy (ME)) stroked a single of his own through the right side. Pena followed with a two-run double down the left field line in opening up a 7-1 lead.
Quinnipiac would get one run back in the top of the ninth on Liam Scafariello's MAAC-leading 16th home run of the year before falling 7-2.
Pena was 2-for-3 with a double, home run, four RBI and a walk while Forlow also was 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBI and an intentional walk to highlight the Manhattan offense. Bisset also finished up 2-for-3 with a sacrifice and a run while matching Pena with his team-leading 13th multi-hit game of the year.
Rocchietti earned the win, improving to 4-4 on the year with seven strikeouts, against no walks, while scattering seven hits over 8.1 innings of two-run ball. Senior RHP Shawn Kanwisher (Washington, NJ / St. Joseph Regional) got the final two outs to seal the win as the Jaspers improve to 7-1 on Sundays during MAAC play.
Joe Burns and Brian Moskey each had two of the Bobcats' eight hits while Robbie Hitt was saddled with the loss, yielding seven runs on nine hits over 7.0 innings with five strikeouts.
Manhattan returns to action at Canisius on Saturday, May 13 with a 12:00 pm doubleheader.