Taylor Sewitt Named National Player of the Week

RIVERDALE, N.Y. - Manhattan College senior starting pitcher Taylor Sewitt received "Louisville Slugger's" National Player of the Week honor which is presented by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (www.baseballnews.com). Sewitt was named the 2012 MAAC Tournament Most Valuable Player on Sunday after leading the Jaspers to their second straight conference title.

The 6'3" right-handed sidewinder from Highland Mills, N.Y. pitched 22 scoreless innings over three appearances in three days. Sewitt won three of the four games that the Jaspers needed to battle out of the elimination bracket and lock up the program's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance, the Jaspers third since 2006. Sewitt finished his heroic performance with 20 strikeouts,  yielding 10 hits by tossing 296 pitches during the tournament.

Sewitt began his postseason dominance on Friday with a complete game, career-high 12 strikeout effort en route to a 1-0 victory over Fairfield in the first of four potential elimination contests. The next day, he came out of the bullpen and held Canisius scoreless in the final two innings of a 5-4, 10 inning walk-off win. Then on Sunday, Sewitt pitched 11 more scoreless innings to lead Manhattan to a championship clinching 3-2 victory over Canisius.

Sewitt ranks fourth in NCAA Division I with 11 wins this season, one shy of the Manhattan program record set by Chris Cody in 2006. He is tied for 22^nd nationally with a 0.97 WHIP. Sewitt has maintained a slim 2.40 ERA in 22 appearances this season. He led the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with 83 strikeouts in 90.0 innings of work. Sewitt carries a 33.2 scoreless inning streak into the 2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Manhattan (33-25) drew the No. 4 seed in Columbia, S.C. and will face defending National Champion South Carolina (40-17) at 4 p.m. Friday on ESPNU. The Jaspers next opponent in the Columbia Regional will be either second-seeded Clemson (33-26) or third-seeded Coastal Carolina (41-17). The winner of the double-elimination regional will take on the winner of the Charlottesville, Va., Regional in the best-of-three Super Regional June 8-10.