Manhattan defies long odds, heads to MAAC Tournament

The situation looked bleak for Manhattan College’s baseball team.

Yes, the Jaspers had just put up a couple lopsided wins over an overmatched St. Peter’s team at Dutchess Stadium last Thursday afternoon, throttling the Peacocks 19-1 and 12-2. But still, the math still wasn’t adding up for Manhattan as far as landing one of the six spots for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in Niagara Falls this week.

The Jaspers, who entered the final week of the regular season toting a 9-12 conference record into the three-game series with St. Peter’s, not only needed to sweep the series from an 0-35 Peacocks team, but it needed help in the form of losses from Quinnipiac, Siena, Monmouth and Niagara in order to squeeze into the MAAC tournament as the fifth seed. 

Head coach Jim Duffy and senior shortstop Jose Carrera sat in about as sullen a locker room as you’ll find after a doubleheader sweep.

“We’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out,” Duffy said, trying to sound as optimistic as possible.

“I truly believe good things are going to happen for this team,” Carrera said.

Carrera then got the greatest graduation gift he could hope for. While he received his diploma, everything broke Manhattan’s way as all four teams Manhattan needed to lose did so. And when the Jaspers closed out the St. Peter’s series with a 5-1 victory last Saturday afternoon, Manhattan’s long-shot trip to the MAAC tournament was secured.

“It was a great weekend with graduation and with us clinching the tournament (spot) on Senior Day,” Carrera said. “At graduation, all the seniors (Carrera, Shawn Kanwisher, Jason Patnick, Joey Rocchietti and James D’Angelo) were following the games on Twitter, and we were all getting excited. We were all going nuts at graduation. It got to the point as the scores were coming in that we knew we’d have a chance to get into the tournament. We just had to beat St. Peter’s on Saturday.”

Being that St. Peter’s was winless on the season and had been outscored 31-3 in the Jaspers’ doubleheader sweep Thursday, Saturday’s regular-season finale was a mere formality.

The Jaspers took an early 1-0 lead on St. Peter’s when Matt Forlow drilled a solo homer — his third of the season — in the second inning. It remained that way until the third when Manhattan staged a dramatic two-out rally and plated four runs. 

Richie Barrella started things off with a single and Brendan Bisset followed with an infield single to put runners on first and second. Fabian Peña then plated Barrella with an RBI single before Evan Brown delivered the big blow of the inning with a two-run double that scored both Bisset and Peña. 

Forlow completed the scoring with an RBI single. and the Jaspers had a 5-0 lead.

That was more than enough offense for starter Matt Simonetti, who allowed just two hits and a walk while striking out three over five scoreless innings.

St. Peter’s managed to push across a run in the seventh inning, but it was way too little and far too late as the Jaspers celebrated their trip to the tournament with a postgame dogpile on the field.

“We actually celebrated before the game a little because we were confident we were going to beat St. Peter’s again,” Carrera said. “I mean we knew we still had to play the game, but we had the momentum, and we knew we were not going to lose.”

It was a rollercoaster of emotions for the Jaspers from Thursday to Saturday. But in the end, the Jaspers defied long odds to punch their coveted ticket to the MAAC tournament.

“This team has been down, but never out,” Duffy said. “And we’re still not out. We’ll keep grinding.”

Manhattan begins the MAAC tourney with Wednesday’s game against No. 4 Iona at Sal Maglie Stadium in Niagara Falls. First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m. Iona took two of three from the Jaspers this season, but Carrera thinks good things are coming for this Jaspers team.

“Iona has some good pitching, but we have the momentum now,” Carrera said. “We had faith that we’d get here and it was meant to be. Now we want to keep it going.”