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RKA grad Luciano top hitter at winless Saint Michael’s College

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A Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy alumni is leading the Saint Michael’s College baseball team in hits as it begins Northeast-10 Conference play.

Senior Ulysses Luciano, who is normally a catcher, has filled in as a second baseman and left fielder as the Colchester, Vermont-based Purple Knights have gotten off to a winless 0-14 start, 0-4 in their conference.

Luciano, who leads the team with 12 hits, had two doubles March 24 in the opener of a doubleheader against 15th ranked Franklin Pierce University, when junior Andrew Lanthier (Orwell, Vermont) and first-year Ryan Canty (Shelburne, Vermont) both added a pair of knocks, with Canty driving in two runs.

The Purple Knights lost that game 22-4. It then went on to lose three more to the Ravens over the weekend by scores of 11-1, 2-1 and 13-1. The road games at Franklin Pierce ended a stretch of seven games against nationally ranked programs.

Purple Knight freshman Jack Fischer (Forest Hills, N.Y./Saint Francis Prep) picked up his first college hit in the nightcap in his first official at bat. He has walked in each of his other four plate appearances this season. Lanthier added two hits while being hit by a pitch.

On Sunday, senior John Luke Cianciolo (Guilford, Connecticut) allowed one run on five hits across six innings in the opener, striking out a career-high-tying seven but taking a no-decision. He was also 1-for-3 with a walk. First-year Sam Cavossa (East Falmouth, Massachusetts) slugged his first college home run, and Lanthier moved into sixth in program history with his 19th and 20th career stolen base. Sophomore Evan Balian (Lynnfield, Massachusetts) finished 2-for-3 in game two.

Lady Jaspers struggling at 3-19

The Manhattan College women’s softball team begins Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play this weekend with a doubleheader at Siena on Sunday at 12 p.m.

The Jaspers, 3-19 overall, lost to Fairleigh Dickinson on the road, 9-1, Tuesday. The loss leaves Manhattan winless in its last 10 games. However, last weekend’s losses to the University of Hartford were of the one-run variety, 7-6 and 2-1, respectively. Manhattan had taken a 6-5 lead in the seventh and final frame when Kaitlyn Flood tied the game with a two-run homerun. Then, Megan Hedlund doubled in the lead run for the Jaspers.

But the Hawks came storming back in the bottom of the seventh for the walk-off win.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Hedlund drove in the only Jasper run on a double that scored Flood. Marika Deemer pitched six innings of eight-hit ball, allowing two runs and striking out three.

Manhattan will have its hands full Sunday against Siena, which is 12-8. Four Saints are hitting over .300.

Manhattan’s Lindsey Hoag, Maddy Weir, and Lauren Rende are all on four-game hitting streaks.

Last week, Megan Hedlund hit .545 and drove in five runs for the Jaspers. Hoag and  Deemer hit .444. She drove in four and scored twice. Rende and Flood scored four runs each over the Jaspers’ three games.

Deemer is inside the top 10 in the MAAC in average, slugging, on-base percentage, OPS, hits, RBI, doubles, triples, home runs, and walks.

Sophia Kiseloski and Makayla Veneziale have struck out 32 batters this season, which is tied for seventh in the MAAC.

MC baseball at 6-16 after tough loss

The Manhattan College baseball team wrapped up its weekend series in the Nation’s Capital on Sunday with a twinbill with the George Washington Colonials, dropping game one, 16-6 and a heartbreaker in game 2, 3-2.

With the losses, Manhattan fell to 6-16. It travels to Saint Peter’s over the weekend for three games.

The scoring in the first game was kicked off by the bat of Pete Durocher with a two-run dinger in the first inning for the center fielder’s third long ball of the season and his 12th RBI.

GW responded with seven unanswered runs before Manhattan brought a pair around in the fifth thanks to a bases loaded walk by Trevor Hansen and then an RBI single by Jacob Radziewicz, making the score 7-4. The Buff and Blue responded with eight runs in their half of the fifth to put the game well out of reach of the Jaspers.

GW got on the board first in the back half of the doubleheader. In the fifth inning, Sam Gates took Jasper starter Connor O’Neill for a solo shot. An RBI double followed to make the score 2-0 when the inning ended.

The Jaspers tied things up in the seventh inning. Durocher led things off with a double and was brought around by the next batter, Trevor Santos, to make the score 2-1. Santos was thrown out on the play trying to stretch it to a double.

Manhattan had a chance to take the lead in the eighth with runners on the corners but the Buff and Blue coaxed Durocher into grounding into a double play. The Green and White had GW’s backs to the wall again in the ninth, with the bases loaded and two outs but managed to get a strikeout to escape the inning.

GW managed to capitalize on a Jasper miscue. Following a leadoff single, Manhattan committed a throwing error on the next play, sending the runner from first to third and was brought around an RBI single to send the Colonials out with the win.

RKA, Ulysses Luciano, Saint Michael's College, Manhattan College baseball, softball,

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