By Benjamin Shinault<\/p>\n
Throughout the seven Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference series matchups that Rider baseball has competed in this season, they have not lost a single one.<\/p>\n
Although, the team\u2019s most recent matchup against Manhattan University was a tight one. If it wasn\u2019t for a bottom-of-the-ninth grand slam, the streak would be in immediate jeopardy.<\/p>\n
With the clutch hit, Rider secured its seventh MAAC series win to add some more breathing room for the Broncs, as they remain the leader in the conference standings.<\/p>\n
\u2018When he hit it, I knew we won the game\u2019<\/p>\n
On a pristine day to play baseball, Rider welcomed in Manhattan on April 17 for a MAAC series on Sonny Pittaro Field.<\/p>\n
From the first inning, Rider was toying with the Jaspers, as the Broncs put up a run on the board from a fielder\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n
In the second inning, two more runs came across for Rider, as a wild pitch scored sophomore infielder Eliot Medlock and a sacrifice fly from senior outfielder Erich Hartmann scored another.<\/p>\n
The Jaspers would hold the Broncs scoreless until the fifth inning when sophomore first baseman Charley Magoulick ripped a ball to right field to score junior catcher Nick Shuhet.<\/p>\n
Manhattan was finally able to get on the board in the sixth inning with a single to right field.<\/p>\n
Senior pitcher PJ Craig\u00a0 pitched for the Broncs on the toasty afternoon. Craig would finish with another impressive line of seven-and-two-thirds innings pitched, surrendering just two earned runs and striking out six.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been consistent, he scattered the hits and didn\u2019t let a big inning leak in. \u2026 It\u2019s always good to have a guy go out and give you a consistent start,\u201d Acting Head Coach Barry Davis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Rider now up 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, junior outfielder Kyle Neri added on to the lead with a two-run home run to left field.<\/p>\n
Later on in the seventh inning, the Broncs added two more runs to make it 8-1. Manhattan scooped up a run in the bottom of the eighth, but that was all they could rummage up, as they lost game one, 8-2.<\/p>\n
In what was supposed to be a singular game on April 18 turned into a doubleheader, as the weather was forecasted to be nasty for the series finale on April 19.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In game one of the doubleheader, the Jaspers struck first in the third inning. But, in the very next inning, sophomore infielder Peter Crespo roped on to right field to tie at 1-1.<\/p>\n
With the game still jammed at 1-1, Manhattan found a groove in the sixth inning, putting up four runs on the board to jump out to a 5-1 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But once again, Crespo continued to swing the hot bat and lined a ball into the outfield for a two-run double. Following that, senior infielder Will Gallagher scooped up an RBI single to make it a one-run ballgame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Jaspers would go on to add another run, which the Broncs could not equalize, as they suffered a loss in game two of the series and in game one of the doubleheader.<\/p>\n
After the grounds crew raked the dirt and repainted the lines, game two of the doubleheader and game three of the series was on.<\/p>\n
Davis, during the course of the rubber match, used seven different arms. Starting the game was senior pitcher Christian Aiello who was coming off MAAC Pitcher of the Week honors for the second time this season.<\/p>\n
Aiello threw two innings, gave up zero runs and struck out three.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rider\u2019s offense followed up Aiello\u2019s dominance with some dominance themselves as the team put up six runs over the first two innings.<\/p>\n
Most of the scoring came from Magoulick and Medlock, who both recorded two RBI doubles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Rider now up 6-0 entering the third inning, the Jaspers swarmed senior pitcher Clayton Poliey, as he gave up five earned runs, two walks and a homerun, all before recording an out.<\/p>\n
Up just 6-5 now, in the sixth and seventh inning, the Broncs were able to extend the lead off an RBI single from Shuhet and a bases-loaded walk to make it 8-5.<\/p>\n
The Jaspers, though, kept fighting and would crawl all the way back to knot the score up at 8-8 in the eighth inning. But, in Rider\u2019s half of the eighth, Crespo delivered a run off a sacrifice fly to center field.<\/p>\n
The ninth inning, with the Broncs holding on by one run, saw the game get tied again with a home run to left field.<\/p>\n
The Broncs then continued to fight tooth-and-nail and would load the bases with Magoulick due up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All Magoulick had to do was put the ball in play to score the winning run, and he did that and more, as he launched a walk-off grand slam. With the 13-9 win, the Broncs picked up their seventh MAAC series win and created more breathing room in the MAAC standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he hit it, I knew we won the game,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt was exciting, and we needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hartmann, who was on the base path when Magoulick sent the ball over the wall to win, called the grand slam, \u201cAwesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, that was awesome,\u201d Hartmann said. \u201cAll you have to do is put the ball in play, but he ends up hitting the walk-off grand slam, which is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rider will take a brief break from MAAC action as they take on a former conference rival in Monmouth University. Game one will take place on April 24 on the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Benjamin Shinault Throughout the seven Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference series matchups that Rider baseball has competed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-205783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}