College Baseball
Rider University 8, Manhattan College 4
Manhattan College 3, Rider University 2
RIVERDALE, NY-The Broncs split a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference doubleheader at first place Manhattan Saturday. "Overall I thought we played pretty well today," said Rider head coach Barry Davis. "The effort was there and we were competitive. Manhattan is very good."
In the first game senior Mike Thomas (Forest Hill, Md./Fallston) pitched seven innings, striking out eight while allowing two earned runs. "We got another well pitched outing from Mike," Davis said.
The Rider career leader for wins (28) and strikeouts (272), Thomas improves to 8-2 on the season. Thomas graduated magna cum laude on Friday. "Mike was solid," Davis said.
The Broncs broke open a 5-3 game with three runs in the ninth on an RBI single by senior Karl Johnston (Hamilton, N.J./Peddie) and sacrifice flies by senior A.J. Albee (Ashley, Pa./Hanover Area) and senior Mason Heyne (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock).
"Karl had a big hit," Davis said.
Heyne doubled, went to third on a ground out and scored on a sacrifice fly by freshman Nick Crescenzo (Hammonton, NJ/Hammonton) to take a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning. "We got some clutch hits," Davis said.
Heyne had two hits and three RBI in the first game. "Mason had a big day," Davis said. Heyne graduated from Rider on Friday.
Crescenzo's RBI single in the eighth inning gave Rider a 5-3 lead.
Heyne hit a two-run single in the first inning and scored on Manhattan's third error for a 3-0 lead. "We took advantage of some of their errors early in the game," Davis said.
Manhattan cut the lead to 3-1 in the second inning on two hits and two Rider errors and tied the score at 3-3 in the fourth inning with two runs on three hits. "They battled back, as they normally do," Davis said of the Jaspers.
Junior Brandon Cotten (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley) had two of Rider's eight hits.
In the second game sophomore Adam Wayman (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) homered to lead off the sixth inning, cutting the lead to 3-2. "That was a big hit for us. Wayman had a good day," Davis said. "In the first game he didn't have any hits but he moved guys over and did his job."
The home run was his third of the season and career hit number 99 for the second year third baseman.
Manhattan (28-17, 17-2 MAAC) scored three runs on four hits in the fourth inning to take a 3-1 lead. "We played well, they just had a big inning when they put some hits together," Davis said.
Heyne's RBI double in the first inning gave the Broncs (30-16, 16-7 MAAC) a 1-0 lead.
"I thought we played well in the second game," Davis said. "3-2 in a seven inning game. We'd like to think that if it was a nine inning game we might have had a chance to come back."
The victory in the first game gave Rider 30 wins, its sixth 30-win season ever and second in a row. Rider had not been 30-15 since 1995 when the Broncs were 30-15 and finished that season 35-18.
The third game of the series is scheduled for Sunday at 12 noon, Rider's final regular season conference game while the rest of the MAAC has one series remaining. With morning rain in the forecast it might be a late afternoon start.
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