March 27, 2011
Final Stats
The good news for the Siena baseball team is it's very early. The bad news is there is lots of work to do if the Saints hope to contend for a MAAC Championship in May. Manhattan completed a convincing weekend sweep of Siena 5-3 Sunday, sending an early statement to the rest of the league that was heard loud and clear here in Loudonville.
The weekend series was played in ridiculously frigid temperatures, limiting the offensive productivity of both teams. The last time Siena and Manhattan played, the two teams combined for 37 runs, a 19-18 Manhattan win in the 2010 regular-season finale May 21 in Riverdale. Just 18 runs were scored in the three games combined this weekend.
The Jaspers won the sloppy series finale despite committing five errors, thanks to another solid starting pitching effort.
Siena took its only lead of the weekend when Dan Paolini lined a one-out RBI-double to left in the first. The Jaspers tied it on Chad Salem's third inning home run, and took the lead for good on Mark Onorati's two-run blast in the fourth.
The Saints took advantage of three Manhattan errors to score a run in the fifth, but the Jaspers quickly answered with two runs in the sixth on RBI hits from Nick Camastro and Mike McCann. Siena added another unearned run in the sixth to account for the final margin.
Jared Hirschberg tossed six strong innings, allowing just one earned run to pick up the victory for the Jaspers. Matt Jordan pitched three flawless innings to secure the save. He did not allow a hit, and walked just one while striking out three.
Siena returns to action Tuesday at Army. Army, located in West Point, N.Y. some 100 miles south of Loudonville, postponed its home doubleheader with Stony Brook Saturday and modified today's schedule to play just one game with the Seawolves.
