NEW ORLEANS, LA (February 28, 2003) - The Manhattan College baseball team (0-1) suffered a 13-1 defeat at the hands of the New Orleans Privateers (5-6) in their season opener Friday evening at Maestri Field.
New Orleans jumped on the Jaspers early, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first. Manhattan got a run back in the top of the second on an RBI single by sophomore designated hitter
Eric Fierro (Levittown, NY). But the Privateers tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the inning and held the Jaspers scoreless for the remainder of the game.
Fierro was 2-4 on the day, while junior
Matt Cucurullo (Valhalla, NY), freshman
John Fitzpatrick (Yonkers, NY), junior
Frank Cappello (Pelham, NY) and sophomore
John Maser (Queens, NY), also picked up basehits in the losing effort.
Senior captain Ryan Darcy (Levittown, NY) had a rocky start to the season, allowing nine earned runs on 14 hits in 4.1 innings of work. Darcy (0-1) did strike out four batters while walking only one. Freshman
Alex Narus (Wolcott, CT) came in in relief of Darcy and pitched the remaining 3.2 innings, giving up four runs on six hits with three strikeouts.
Manhattan and New Orleans square off in the second game of the three-game set Saturday afternoon at 1:00 PM.
