POMONA, NY – The Manhattan Jaspers baseball team (18-29, 9-18 MAAC) split the home finale against the Purple Eagles of Niagara University (24-17-1, 19-8 MAAC) by scores of 14-9 and 14-3 in seven innings from inside Clover Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

GAME TWO

• Seeking to remain in the postseason race were the Green and White, who needed to claim victory plus some assistance from others around the conference, and remained poised to do just that during their penultimate home game of the season.
• After the Purple Eagles posted two runs on three hits to open the game, Ryan Lordier and Guriyandel Salva both singled to get aboard, before Vincent Samuel drove home Lordier from third to cut the Niagara lead in half.
• The Jaspers fell into a double-digit deficit in the third inning, but crawled back with a booming fourth inning, starting with a Samuel double to left center.
• On the next at-bat, Andreaus Lewis extended his on-base streak to 28 straight games with a walk, before Justin Best singled to left and loaded the bases.
• Then, Hunter Sute walked in a run to cut the team's deficit to nine. After Trevor Hansen struck out looking, Colin Basehore drove in Lewis on a single to right-center field.
• Continuing his hot hitting was Ryan Lordier, who slapped a two-bagger to right center to drive home Basehore and Sute. To put an exclamation on the inning, it was Lordier, who took advantage of the Niagara miscue and scored on the pitcher's balk to narrow its deficit to as little as three.
• The Purple Eagles widened their lead back to six before Trevor Hansen's single to left field drove home Hayden Jung-Goldberg for the team's ninth run of the game.

GAME THREE

• Prior to the start of the final game of the three-game set, the Jaspers honored all mother's in attendance with a first pitch to their sons on the team. Followed by the honoring of the 13 seniors from the Class of 2026, that included Trevor Hansen, Hayden Jung-Goldberg, Arnav Ghuliani, Jacob Smoot, and Ryan Lordier.
• Working from behind for the second straight game were the Green and White, but responded in a big way come the third inning with a six-spot in the run column.
• After Brinker and Salva both walked to open the third, Samuel brought home the former from second to get the Jaspers on the board.
• On the next at-bat, Andreaus Lewis extended his on-base streak to 29 games with a three-run blast to right center to take the lead of the afternoon.
• Then, with two outs, Trevor Hansen doubled to left center to bring home Hunter Sute from first and give Manhattan a three-run cushion.
• Following a pitching change from Niagara, the Jaspers took advantage with a Jackson Brinker infield single to score Hansen.
• In the fourth inning, the Jaspers did not hold back with a three-run Justin Best round-tripper into the right field seats for a seven-run advantage.
• The Jaspers did not stop with Brinker doubling to left field and bringing home Sute for an eight-run margin.
• Finally, in the seventh, the Jaspers walked it off with Justin Best smacking his second home run of the day to the right field bleachers to immediately halt the game due to the run-rule and take the backend of the doubleheader to salvage the three-game series.

STATS AND NOTES

• Catcher Andreaus Lewis extended his hitting streak to 29 games with a combined 4-for-9 with three runs, one walk, five RBIs, one double, one home run, two runs scored, and two strikeouts.
• Infielder Ryan Lordier posted a 2-for-8 day with three runs, two RBI's, one walk, and one double.
• Outfielder Jackson Brinker combined for a 5-for-7 day, with three RBIs, one run, one walk, one double, a stolen base, and one run in the effort against Niagara.
• Infielder Trevor Hansen continued his hot streak with another 3-for-9 day, two RBIs, one run, a double, and one strikeout.
• Infielder Vincent Samuel posted a double and a sacrifice fly in a 1-for-4 afternoon, with one RBI, one run, and one strikeout.
• In the backend of the twinbill, starting pitcher Joseph Duffield notched his second victory of the campaign with a quality start of six innings, four hits surrendered, three earned runs, five walks, and one strikeout in 95 pitches tossed.

QUOTES FROM THE JASPERS

Head Coach Steven Rosen: "Proud of the seniors for finishing out their home-season with a strong win. It would've been easy after a disappointing first game to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves - but instead we came out with a ton of energy ready to salvage a series - and I'm proud of that complete game we played on all sides of the ball in a run-rule win. Forever grateful for the work and effort this senior class put in to building our program and winning every day."

NEXT UP:

The Jaspers conclude their non-conference season on Tuesday, May 12, when the Green and White trek eastbound to face the Sharks of Long Island University from LIU Baseball Stadium beginning at 2 p.m. The contest can be viewed on NEC Front Row for free.

Follow Manhattan Baseball on X and Instagram (@JaspersBaseball).