Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Tom Albanese
Game 1- Jankins earns second straight win at home
It wasn’t as good as eight scoreless innings against Iona, but Quinnipiac starting pitcher Thomas Jankins fought for his fourth win of the season in a 5-3 showing against Manhattan.
Lasting seven and-two-thirds innings, Jankins allowed three runs on eight hits while striking out four. Struggles came early in his outing, surrendering a run in both the second and third innings.
Manhattan’s freshman star, Fabian Pena, drove a leadoff double off the centerfield wall. He was then driven home off Michael Pfenninger’s single to left field for an early 1-0 lead.
An inning later, the Jaspers went up two runs after the same combination was executed, this time through Jose Carrera and Christian Santisteban.
Quinnipiac’s offense was first ignited by the man at the top of the lineup, Brian Moskey. He was the only Bobcat with multiple hits going 3-for-4.
During the bottom of the fourth inning, Rob Pescitelli took a pitch to the shoulder. Two batters later, Joseph Burns hit a double down the left field line and Pescitelli scored to trim the Bobcats deficit in half.
The biggest damage came in the bottom of the fifth when Pescitelli launched a two-run homerun, giving the Bobcats a 3-2 lead.
During the Bobcats’ offensive spurts in the middle innings, Jankins posted zeroes until the seventh, when he was harmed by errors.
Chris Reynolds reached on a fielding error by Aron Fried, allowing the Jaspers to tie the game. But, the Bobcats got the lead back in the bottom half inning as Moskey crossed home plate on a Jasper error.
Lou Iannotti added an RBI groundout later the same inning off two key Matthew Batten stolen bases.
In the top of the ninth inning, with a runner on first and the tying run at the plate for Manhattan, Pescitelli made a diving catch in right and doubled off the runner to finish the game.
Game 2- Quinnipiac bullpen collapses in lopsided loss
More offense was unleashed in Game 2 of the Quinnipiac-Manhattan doubleheader Saturday afternoon.
“We just wanted to get right back on them,” Pescitelli noted. “It was a seven-inning game, so we wanted to score first. But then they scored three in the first. Then we were able to come back, but then they scored again. It was just a hard-fought battle the entire game.”
Ultimately, Quinnipiac was up 6-5 in the top of the sixth inning when Justin Thomas entered the game as the third relief pitcher. He recorded a strikeout and fly out before things turned.
A base hit by Carrera to left-fielder Julius Saporito was bobbled as Carrera advanced all the way to third base.
It took another eight batters for Thomas to get out of the inning, but by then, six runs scored, giving Manhattan a 12-6 advantage.
“A lot of things went wrong. We made a little bit of a mental mistake in left field,” Delaney said. “Obviously, the heart and soul of their team is their shortstop (Carrera) and their team feeds off his energy. When he takes third base on that play, his energy alone just taking that extra base made their dugout have a different emotion. And all of a sudden, they rattle off all these hits.”
The long two-out rally consisted of four runs scored by singles, a two-run home run by Santisteban and a double from Rocchietti, sparked by the Saporito misplay.
Quinnipiac continued to show its fighting spirit thanks to Iannotti who slammed a two-run shot over the right field fence, making it a four run ballgame.
However, this was the closest the Bobcats would come to getting back in the game.
Both Delaney and Pescitelli reiterated how important a team is with all its extra relievers.
“The bullpen has to just keep us in the games, because we’re down ten in the last inning and yet we were still coming back,” said Pescitelli. “Our offense is going to be there.”
“When we have chances of keeping the game close, we need to take advantage of not letting them extend that lead further. We also need to work more on damage control too.” Delaney said.
With the split, Quinnipiac moves to 15-22 overall (5-6 MAAC) while Manhattan stands at 12-23 (4-7 MAAC). Both squads will play the rubber match on Sunday afternoon at noon.
Pescitelli remains confident with his teammates moving forward.
“The good thing about baseball is there’s another day. So we just need to have a short memory and come back out tomorrow with a lot of energy, win the game, win a series and keep climbing in the MAAC standings.”
