College Baseball
Manhattan College 7, Rider University 2

LAWRENCEVILLE—The Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game to pre-season favorite Manhattan Sunday, and the Jaspers won the series two games to one. “Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to your opponent,” said Rider head coach Barry Davis.

The Rider loss, along with LeMoyne’s sweep of Niagara this weekend, drops the Broncs (22-25, 15-6 MAAC) to a half game out of first place, behind LeMoyne (15-5), while Manhattan (22-20, 12-8 MAAC) moves ahead of Niagara (12-9) for fourth place. “Before the season our number one goal was just to make the playoffs,” said Davis.  “We didn’t care how, just get in and see what happens. If you had told me that we’d be a half game out of first place with six games left to play, I would have taken that in a minute.”

Manhattan took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning, went up 2-0 in the sixth inning, and broke the game open with four runs in the seventh inning on five hits, including a two-run home run by John Fitzpatrick, his fourth home run of the series and ninth of the season. “Give them credit,” said Davis. “They knew they had to come in here and win the series to crack the top four and they did.”

Rider did not get on the board until the eighth inning on an unearned run. Junior Scott Knazek (Browns Mills/Pemberton) hit an RBI double in the ninth inning for the final score.

Rider plays the final home game of the season Tuesday against St. Joseph’s, before traveling to Canisius for a three game series May 13-14. Rider ends the regular season with a three-game series at LeMoyne May 18-19.

Freshman Mo Williams (Tinton Falls/Monmouth Regional) had two of Rider’s eight hits.

On Senior Day, Rider seniors Mike Poalise (Hammonton), Bryan Wagner (Flemington/Hunterdon Central), Tom Letizia (Fair Lawn) and Gene Crimoli (Shrewsbury/Christian Brothers Academy) all collected hits.

“We didn’t hit well this weekend, but their pitching had a lot to do with that,” said Davis. “We’ll look to win the series at Canisius and it will come down to the LeMoyne series.”

-RU-