LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Baseball split its series-opening doubleheader with Manhattan Friday at Connors Park. The Saints captured the opener 10-4, while Manhattan took the nightcap 10-2.
Game One: Siena 10, Manhattan 4
Danny Barbero homered and drove in five runs to lead Siena (10-34, 4-10) to the series-opening victory. Barbero was one of four different Saints to register a multi-hit performance as part of a 12-hit attack.
Siena scored a pair of runs apiece in the first and second innings to jump out to a quick 4-0 advantage.
Vincent DiNicola and Barbero delivered back-to-back RBI extra-base hits in the first, while
Donovan Montgomery hit an RBI double and
Randall Hien added a sacrifice fly in the second. Montgomery tallied a game-high three hits in the win.
Manhattan (14-27, 7-7) halved the lead with a pair in the fifth, but got no closer as the Saints responded with the ensuing six runs – capped by a three-run eighth inning home run by Barbero – to seal the victory.
Arlo Marynczak threw seven solid innings striking out seven to earn his staff-leading third win.
Game Two: Manhattan 10, Siena 2
Manhattan scored in each of the final five innings, and scored nine unanswered down the stretch, to secure the split. The Jaspers registered 14 hits and worked 11 walks in the nightcap.
Neither team scored until fourth, when DiNicola broke the stalemate with a solo shot just over the 400-foot marker in dead center. After Manhattan got the run back in the next half inning, Siena went back ahead 2-1 in the home half of the fifth on a two-out RBI single by
Matt Livingston.
But the Jaspers reclaimed the lead for good with a three-run sixth. Logan Pfannenbecker hit the go-ahead two-run single, and Alfredo Delgado followed with another RBI. Manhattan added a pair of insurance runs to push the lead to 6-2 in the seventh, and continued to add from there to pull away late.
Oliver Pudner tossed 4.1 scoreless innings of relief to secure the win out of the bullpen for the Jaspers.
The rubber game of the series is tentatively scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., weather permitting.