MADISON, NJ – The Manhattanville College baseball team completed a series sweep of MAC Freedom foe FDU-Florham on Saturday. The Valiants posted 17 hits in a 14-5 Game 1 win, then matched the mark in a 19-8 Game 2 triumph.
Manhattanville (7-7, 4-1 MACF) scored 11 unanswered runs over three innings after falling behind 4-3 in Game 1. Freshman
Luke Shaffer (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) finished the game 4-for-5 with two runs and two RBI's.
The Valiants put up seven runs in both the first and fifth innings of Game 2 as Shaffer, sophomore
Peter Iannarilli (West Nyack, N.Y./Clarkstown South), and senior
Austin Pollack (Harrison, N.Y./) all finished with at least three RBI's.
Seniors
Thomas Contrelli (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) and
Jorge Castro (Yonkers, N.Y./Saunders), along with sophomore
Danny Meduri (Stamford, Conn./Stamford), allowed just one run and six hits while striking out seven in a combined 6.2 innings of relief between the two games.
GAME ONE: Graduate student
Chris Conklin (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland) put Manhattanville on the board in the top of the first, driving home senior
Danny Gallagher (Nanuet, N.Y./Paramus Catholic) with a base hit. Junior
Matt Coleman (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) added to the lead, driving in sophomore
Luke Tebolt (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) with an RBI groundout in the second before Gallagher made it 3-0, knocking in Shaffer with a double.
FDU-Florham (5-11, 1-4 MACF) scored four times in the bottom of the second against sophomore
Ryan Ninivaggi (Throggs Neck, N.Y./Lehman), but the Valiants responded with three in top of the third, the big knock coming from Shaffer, who drove in Tebolt and Iannarilli with an opposite-field double.
In the top of the fourth, after Pollack drove in junior
Luke Scoggins (Merrick, N.Y./Sanford H. Calhoun) with an opposite field double of his own, Iannarilli delivered a two-run single, scoring Pollack and freshman
Jack Matero (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./John Jay).
Iannarilli, Scoggins, and junior
Tom Gilmartin (Levittown, N.Y./Island Trees) all delivered RBI base hits in the top of the fifth, as Manhattanville scored five more times, opening a 10-run lead. Michael Tufano drove in AJ Yurista with a sacrifice fly for the game's final run in the bottom of the fifth.
GAME TWO: The Valiants scored seven runs in the first inning, including five with two outs. Sophomore
Matt Lynch (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) provided the biggest hit of the inning when he singled home Pollack and fellow senior
Nick Campana (Yonkers, N.Y./St. John the Baptist Elementary), with Shaffer also coming home on an error by the Devils' Ian Havran.
Iannarilli made it 9-0 with a two-run double in the top of the second, before the Devils finally got on the board with three in the bottom half of the inning, as the teams put runs on the board in six straight half-innings through the bottom of the fourth.
In the top of the fifth, the Valiants put their first six runners of the inning on, opening up a 15-8 cushion in the process. After Will Lapham was brought on in relief, Pollack greeted him with Manhattanville's first grand slam of the season, providing the final runs of the afternoon. The 19 runs marked Manhattanville's highest single game total since an 18-11 win over King's on March 22, 2016.
The Valiants return home Tuesday for a 4:00 non-conference affair with the Colonials of Western Connecticut State University.
