RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The first year of Manhattan baseball under head coach
Dave Miller took many twists and turns, which ended in the MAAC Championship; the future is as bright as ever for the program.
Miller was given the reigns to the program on September 8th, 2022, at an introductory press conference, and the work began there.
The first season began with a series down in DeLand, Fla., with the Stetson Hatters. While Manhattan did not score that illustrious first win under Miller, it wouldn't be much longer until that happened.
The following weekend, the Jaspers went west for a four-game weekend series with the Roadrunners of Cal State Bakersfield. The third game of the series entered the seventh inning deadlocked at three until
Jack Lynch stepped into the batter's box and blasted a two-run dinger to right field to take a 5-3 lead. From there,
Oliver Pudvar shut the door to secure Miller's first win in the Green and White.
The next weekend featured a much shorter trip for the Jaspers, a weekend in Maryland for two games against UMES and Lehigh a piece. While the Jaspers could not take down the Mountain Hawks, they did dispatch UMES both times, including a 15-6 win. The 15 runs were a season-high at the time. That game saw the Jaspers dominate the base paths, stealing an impressive 13 bases.
Pete Durocher stole four while
Zahan Meyer, and
Frankie Marinelli tallied three each.
The following week, Manhattan would once again head south, this time to Austin, Texas, for a weekend with national powerhouse, Texas. While down there, Lynch would suffer an injury in game one of the series that would keep him off the diamond for quite some time.
Trevor Santos swatted his first career home run down in Austin, keeping the ball just left of the foul pole in game one.
Manhattan would get back on track a few weeks later with a series against the Hartford Hawks. Manhattan would break out the brooms that weekend, taking down the Hawks 7-5, 14-4, and 17-6. In the series finale,
Trevor Hansen collected seven RBI and blasted a pair of home runs, including a grand slam.
Manhattan opened conference play a couple of weeks later with a visit to Saint Peter's. In the series opener,
Will Hesslink tossed a gem, presiding over six innings, yielding five hits, allowing one run, and sitting down 12 Peacocks on strikes en route to a 7-1 win.
The following day, the Jaspers secured the series victory, splitting a doubleheader after losing game one 8-6 and winning the rubber game 5-4. Hansen and
Logan Pfannenbecker brought two runs around a piece to secure the victory in game three.
The next MAAC series for the Green and White would be the team's long-awaited home opener against the Fairfield Stags at Clover Stadium. The Jaspers dropped the first two games of the series, but in game two of the weekend meeting, Santos mashed a pair of home runs over the right-field short porch for the right fielder's first multi-home run game of his Jasper career.
Game three of the series was moved up to Fairfield, and an absolute slugfest ensued. Manhattan plated seven runs in the second inning, but the Stags' bats would not be silenced for long. A six-run seventh inning was highlighted by a grand slam off the bat of Ethan Hibbard to get the Stags within one run. The ball game was tied up in the eighth inning but Manhattan would strike again in their half of the inning.
Daniel Perez clobbered a two-run home run to right field to regain the lead for good.
After a weekend in Niagara in which Pfannenbecker and
Greg Shaw each swatted their first career home runs, Manhattan would enter into one of the most eventful weeks this season.
The week opened with the Stony Brook Seawolves coming to Clover for a midweek clash. The Seawolves hopped out to an early 5-0 lead, but by the end of the sixth inning, the Green and White had tied the ballgame up at 9-9 thanks to
Frankie Marinelli's first career homer. The two teams entered the ninth inning tied at nine before Stony Brook scored four runs in the top half. With their work cut out, the Jaspers came to bat in the bottom of the ninth. After tying the game at 13-13, Marinelli delivered a walk-off single to steal a 14-13 win to open the week.
That would not be the only walk-off that week for the Jaspers. In the team's weekend MAAC series against the Marist Red Foxes, after dropping game one, Manhattan managed to rebound the following day. After falling behind 3-0 in the first two innings, the Jaspers fought back to force extra innings at 5-5. In the tenth inning,
Ryan Eaton delivered a single to right field to walk the Jaspers off yet again.
That week would prove to be the turning point in the Jaspers season, who managed to get hot the rest of the way.
Manhattan would take its second MAAC series in a row, 2-1, over Siena, which included a run rule 11-1 victory in game three.
The following weekend, Manhattan welcomed Mount St. Mary's to Clover for a series with major playoff implications. In the series opener, Hesslink fired a complete game shutout in which he only yielded three hits and fanned 10 Mountaineers. The Jaspers secured the series win with a 9-7 victory in game two the following day behind a pair of short-porch-dingers from
Pete Durocher and
Daniel Perez. Manhattan ultimately would be unable to complete the sweep, being defeated in game three, 15-10.
Next up was Canisius. Manhattan dropped the first two games of the series but battled for a 5-4 win in game three to earn another crucial MAAC victory.
The final week of the season was also quite the eventful one. The week opened with this year's installment of the Battle of the Bronx. The game went the distance and ended in the 13th inning when
Daniel Perez walked the Jaspers off for a 13-12 victory in the Jaspers' final non-conference game of the 2023 season.
With momentum heading into the final MAAC series, and the Jaspers playoff chances in the balance, Manhattan faced off with Rider to close the season. Game one ended in a 12-8 victory for the Jaspers, and the team's playoff spot was secured the following day in a 6-1 victory in game two to get the Jaspers back in the postseason as the sixth seed.
Before the start of the postseason, Marinelli was named first-team All-MAAC, Durocher was honored with a spot on the second team while Pudvar, and
Garret Garbinski earned spots on the MAAC All-Rookie Team.
The 2023 MAAC Baseball Championships opened with the Jaspers again sharing the diamond with the Golden Griffins at Clover. Manhattan dominated the third-seeded Golden Griffins en route to an impressive 17-3 run-rule victory to open the tournament.
Canisius grabbed an early lead and held onto it for the majority of the game. It wouldn't be until the sixth inning that Manhattan's bats would come alive in a big way, erupting for nine runs in the sixth inning. The sixth inning was capped off by a three-run blast by Santos to right field. The Jaspers tacked on another five runs in the seventh to run-rule the third-seeded Golden Griffins, 17-3.
Jack Mahoney tossed four and two-thirds of scoreless baseball in relief to earn the win while only yielding two hits.
The team's win was the first postseason win for the program since the 2019 season.
On day two of the championship, Manhattan opened the day against the top-seeded Stags. The game opened with a bang; Lynch took the Stags deep in the first inning for a two-run shot to gain an early 2-0 advantage. The lead extended to 3-0 on an RBI single from Marinelli in the second inning. The Stags responded with a five-run second frame of their own and would hold off the Jaspers, 9-8, to send the Jaspers down to the elimination bracket for another meeting with the Golden Griffins.
Both teams fought to keep their seasons alive, and the game had that atmosphere.
The next day, the Jaspers met top-seeded Fairfield in the first game of the day once again. Lynch got the Jaspers on the board in the first inning with a two-run blast. Marinelli drove in one run in the second to take a 3-0 lead. Fairfield put up five runs in the home half of the second inning to take the lead for good, with the final score ending 7-6 in favor of the Stags, sending the Jaspers down to an elimination game where they once again met the Golden Griffins.
The game came down to the final inning, with Canisius entering with a comfortable 8-3 lead. After eight straight balls from Canisius put runners on first and second,
Alfredo Delgado smacked a double to bring across one run, making the score 8-4.
Daniel Perez cut the lead to three with a sac fly, but at the cost of one of the Jaspers' three final outs.
Out number two came on a swinging strikeout by
Jacob Radziewicz. Santos singled right up the middle to score Delgado and get the good guys within two runs. Hansen was hit by the first pitch of his at-bat and was awarded first. Marinelli drew a walk to load the bases and Pfannenbecker followed it up with a walk of his own to get the Jaspers within one. The comeback would fall just short as Durocher flew out to end the game.
When the dust had settled on the 2023 season, the record books needed some updating. The Jaspers' patience at the plate was some of the best this storied program has ever seen, with the 321 walks being the most in program history. Marinelli drew 47 on his own while Pfannenbecker was right behind him with 43 of his own.
On the opposite end of the hitting spectrum, the Jaspers left the park 43 times this season, which is the fourth most in program history. Durocher and Perez each belted eight to lead the Jaspers.
On the bump, Hesslink rang up 94 batters which is the fourth most for a pitcher in a single season. The whole staff finished with 416 punchouts which puts the staff in second in program history for single-season strikeouts.
Garbinski slammed the door six times in his freshman year which is also the fourth most in Jaspers' history.
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