Wappingers Falls, NY - Fueled by a pair of strong pitching performances and a timely offense, Manhattan swept a doubleheader from rival Iona by scores of 5-2 and 5-0.
The Jaspers improve to 10-19 and 3-2 in the MAC while the Gaels fall to 6-23 and 1-4 in the league.
Game Two
Junior RHP T.J. Stuart (Milford, CT / Joseph A. Foran) struck out a career-high eight and notched his first career complete game shutout in leading Manhattan to a 5-0 win in securing the sweep.
Stuart (3-3) scattered just five hits and retired 13 of the final 15 batters he faced to end the game, including nine-straight at one point.
Sophomore Matt Padre (Flemington, NJ / Hunterdon Central) and freshman Keury Abreu (Bronx, NY / St. Raymond) each had two hits while combining for three runs to fuel a Jasper offense that rapped out six in the game.
Graduate student Shawn Blake (Stratford, CT / Elon) put Manhattan on the board in the bottom of the first with his first home run of the year, a solo shot to right field.
After Stuart struck out the side in the top of the second, the Jasper offense was back at it in the bottom part of the frame.
Junior Alex Cerda (Miami, FL / Florida Christian) led off with a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on Padre single. Abreu followed with a RBI single to chase home Cerda for the second run of the game. Padre would later score on a Sam Franco (Fr., Bardonia, NY / Clarkstown South) sacrifice fly to extend the lead out to 3-0.
Padre and Abreu were at it against in the bottom of the fourth. The duo led off the frame with back-to-back hits, before coming around to score on an error to give the Jaspers a pair of insurance runs.
The five runs were more than enough for Stuart, who didn't face more than four batters in any one inning in firing his third-straight complete game.
Daniel Palermo led Iona with two hits as LHP Hunter Sibley was the pitcher of record for the visitors, yielding five runs, three earned, on five hits over 5.0 innings.
Game One
John Cain (Middletown, NY / Lafayette) retired 13 in a row at one point and worked into the ninth inning to lead Manhattan to a 5-2 win over Iona in the opener.
Cain (3-3) struck out four while scattering two runs on six hits over 8.1 dominating innings in collecting his first career victory at Dutchess Stadium.
The Jaspers scored all five their runs in the decisive fifth inning while sending eight batters to the plate.
Freshman Jonathan Barditch (Miami, FL / Belen Jesuit Prep) got thing started with a leadoff double down the right field line, before moving to third on a pass ball and would score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Franco. Blake and freshman Nick Cimillo (Airmont, NY / Suffern) followed with singles and junior Dominic Palma (Hilton, NY / Hilton) followed with a double to plate Blake while pushing Cimillo to third. Cerda then blasted a double on the first he saw into the right-center gap, scoring Cimillo and Palma while extending the advantage out to 4-0. Abreu would cap the five-run frame with a sacrifice fly to plate Cerda, who had moved to third on a Padre single.
After being thwarted for most of the game by Cain, Iona finally broke through with a pair of runs in the ninth, before senior RHP Joe DiTorrice (Montgomery, NJ / Montgomery) got the final two outs in picking up his first career save.
Cimillo, Franco and Padre each had two hits to lead an offense that notched 10 in the game.
RHP Stephen Hansen was saddled with the loss, striking out seven while yielding five runs on 10 hits over 6.0 innings.
Cain Postgame
We have the ?? JSN postgame as @CJGib13 is joined by John Cain, following his impressive performance in game one of Manhattan's DH ?? of Iona.#JasperNation pic.twitter.com/xaHpU9QLs2
— Manhattan Baseball (@JaspersBaseball) April 6, 2019
Up Next
The teams will conclude their series on Sunday, April 7 at 12:00 pm.