Riverdale, NY (May 21, 2004)- Manhattan led 13-4 after five innings and held off a Fairfield rally for a 14-12 win in the regular season finale for both teams today at Van Cortlandt Park.
Matt Cucurullo became just the second Jasper to post 200 hits in a career, as he was 2-4 with four RBI in his final home game for Manhattan. The Jaspers improve to 23-25-1 overall and 16-9 in MAAC play and await the outcomes of other conference series before finding out their seed for next weekend's MAAC Championship.
Manhattan scored seven runs over the first two innings to establish its big lead. In the first, the first four Jasper batters all connected on hits, with
Chris Gaskin singling home
Nick Derba with the bases loaded for the first run. Cucurullo followed with a sacrifice fly, plating
Gary Diaz before
John Fitzpatrick connected on a two-run double, scoring Gaskin and
Sam Deluca.
In the second, Gaskin singled home Derba and Cucurullo singled home Gaskin and Diaz to make the score 7-0 Manhattan.
Fairfield (16-27, 11-16 MAAC) got on the board in the third back-to-back doubles by Dewey Raymond and Jim Sheridan, before scoring three more in the fourth to pull with three at 7-4. Manhattan responded in the bottom of the inning with five runs on five hits to push the lead to 12-4. Cucurullo started the scoring with a single, driving home Deluca. The single gave Cucurullo 200 hits for his career, joining current assistant coach Wendell Anderson as the only Jaspers to record 200 hits in a career. After a walk,
Josh Greco singled home Cucurullo, and Fitzpatrick scored when the Fairfield right fielder threw the ball out of play.
Jonathan Holzer doubled home Greco and
John Maser singled home Holzer to give Manhattan a commanding lead. The Jaspers added a run in the bottom of the fifth when Fitzpatrick doubled home Diaz to make the score 13-4.
At this point the Stags' bats came alive, as Fairfield scored the next six runs to get back in the game, plating one in the seventh and five more in the eighth to bring the Stags to within two at 13-11. Manhattan scored an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a Derba single which brought home Sylvester Gutierrez, but Fairfield would push across a run in the ninth, but
Jesse Darcy closed the door for his first collegiate save.
Chris Cody (4-1) struck out six in 7.1 innings for the win, while Pablo Tamayo (1-9) allowed seven runs, four earned in two innings for the loss.
Eight Jaspers posted multi hit games, as Diaz and Deluca each tallied three hits, while Derba, Gaskin, Cucurullo, Fitzpatrick, Holzer, and Maser each recorded two hits.
Manhattan gets back in action on Thursday, May 27, when the Jaspers travel to Fishkill, NY for the MAAC Championships, which will be played at Dutchess Stadium. Seedings and game times will be announced soon.
