FISHKILL — Manhattan’s Brendan Bisset delivered a walk-off, two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth as Manhattan salvaged the weekend with a 5-4 win in the series finale over the Siena College Baseball team at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, New York. Nonetheless, the Saints still took two of three over their conference-opening weekend in capturing the program’s eighth straight MAAC series win dating back to last season.
Bisset’s game-winner capped a wild final frame in which Manhattan (6-16, 3-3) was initially denied a walk-off win just one batter earlier. Jose Carerra singled to left, but pinch runner Brendan Valls was gunned down at home plate by a game-saving throw in by freshman leftfielder Chris Davignon. But Carerra took second on the throw, and came in to score the winning run on Bisset’s single to left.
Junior first baseman Joe Drpich capped a stellar week with three doubles for Siena (9-13-1, 2-1) which saw its six-game unbeaten streak snapped in being handed its first loss in two weeks. Drpich hit .429 with seven RBI and five runs scored in a 3-1 week for the Saints, which included a mid-week triumph at Fairleigh Dickinson.
MAAC Preseason Player of the Year Fabian Pena and Jason Patnick each accounted for three of the Jaspers’ 14 hits, and were instrumental in staking Manhattan to an early 3-0 lead through the first three innings of play. But Siena responded with single runs in the fourth and sixth innings to narrow the deficit.
Drpich knotted the score at 3-all in the eighth, doubling home senior centerfielder Dan Swain with the tying run. After the Jaspers responded with the go-ahead run in the home half of the inning, Swain once again pulled Siena even. The clutch Swain, who delivered game-winning hits in two of the Saints’ three wins this week, produced a two-out single to score freshman Nico Ramos and make it 4-4.
But Siena’s late-inning magic would run out in the bottom of the ninth, as the Jaspers struck last and snapped a six-game losing streak in the series.
Siena returns to action Tuesday when the Saints host UMass at RPI’s Robison Field in nearby Troy at 3 p.m.
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