Miami, FL – Senior Matt Forlow's (Cold Spring, NY / Haldane) two-out RBI double in the top of the 10th inning propelled Manhattan to a 3-2 win over FIU in the first of a four-game series.
The Jaspers improve to 1-3 with the Golden Panthers falling to 2-6.
Forlow's big hit came after junior Adam Genners (Jacksonville, FL / Stanton College Prep) led off with a bunt single before moving to second on a Jose Carrera (Sr., Miami, FL / St. Brendan) sacrifice.
Senior RHP Shawn Kanwisher (Washington Township, NJ / St. Joseph's Regional) entered and promptly struck out the first two batters he saw en route to registering an easy three-out save.
Senior Matt Simonetti (Manalapan, NJ / Manalapan) was the beneficiary of Kanwisher's clean inning as the hard-throwing righty struck out three over 2.1 perfect innings of relief in notching his first victory of the year.
Manhattan opened the scoring with a first-inning run as senior Jose Carrera (Miami, FL / St. Brendan) reached via an error in leading off the game before advancing to second on a Fabian Pena (So., Miami, FL / Calusa Prep) single. Carrera would later cross the plate on junior Michael Pfenninger's (Flemington, NJ / Hunterdon Central) RBI single.
FIU would tie the game up at 1-1 in the top of the third on Christian Khawarm's RBI ground out. However, the damage could have been worse as Jacques stranded a runner at third.
The Jaspers reclaimed the lead with another single score in the top of the fourth. Junior Paul Genners (Jacksonville, FL / Stanton College Prep) led off with a walk before moving to second on a Jason Patnick (Sr., Hopewell, NJ / IMG Academy (FL)) sacrifice. Senior Evan Brown (Ashburnham, MA (Bridgton Academy (ME)) was then plunked and freshman Anthony Rocchietti (Green Brook, NY / Watchung) singled to load up the bases with one out. Adam Genners followed with a sacrifice fly to plate pinch-runner Richie Barrella (So., Larchmont, NY / Canterbury Prep).
Over the first five innings, Jacques limited the Golden Panthers to just one run on a pair of hits before running into trouble in the sixth. Javier Valdes singled to tie the game up at 2-2 while placing runners at the corners with one out. However, Pena nailed his second runner on the bases and Jacques struck out Kenny Meimerstorf for the final out while evading further trouble.
The hard-throwing Jacques then struck out the final two batters he faced in the seventh before exiting having yielded just two runs on five hits and a pair of walks with six strikeouts over 6.2 inning. Simonetti entered and got the final out while setting the stages for a dramatic victory.
Brown had two of the seven Jasper while Adam Genners singled, walked, scored a run and drove one in to round out the top offensive performers to pace the visitors.
Robert Garcia was the tough-luck losing pitcher for FIU, striking out five while surrendering one run on two hits over 4.0 innings.
The teams will continue their series tomorrow with a 3:00 pm doubleheader.