Myron Corpuz was a stand-out athlete at the Metropolitan Championships, winning two events and scoring points in two others.
GOJASPERS.COM / COURTESY
Brooke Della Rocco, Senior Writer
With a series of very close games throughout last week, the Manhattan Jaspers pushed forward to tackle new competitors.
Women’s Lacrosse
Manhattan University’s women’s lacrosse team lost their match against Sacred Heart University last Wednesday. Despite a strong offense throughout the entire game, scoring a goal in each quarter, it ultimately was not enough as they finished 9-8.
Freshman Ella Brunette was a standout in the match, with three goals scored, adding the game to her six other games with three or more goals. Additionally, Brunette tallied the first assist in her collegiate career.
In the ending half of the first quarter, Brunette and sophomore Meghan Wendler scored goals just 30 seconds apart from each other, overtaking a 3-1 lead.
In the second half, Sacred Heart’s Pioneers scored four consecutive goals, making the score 3-5. Brunette’s third goal was made in the final quarter, but was not enough to tie up the score, 9-8.
Freshman Logan Pillon had a fantastic game with three assists, a new career high, which makes her the player with the highest total assists for this season. Junior goalkeeper Sophie Pasnak also was a standout, with nine total saves across the full 60 minutes.
Manhattan’s men’s lacrosse team also suffered a loss to Merrimack on Friday morning. With a score of 11-9, the game started off with strong aggression from the Jaspers, scoring three goals early on.
As the game went on, Merrimack overtook control, scoring four goals within the last 11 minutes.
Sophomore Thomas White was a clear standout, scoring three of the nine points from Manhattan.
Baseball
Manhattan’s baseball team had a busy week with three games, one of which was a slim loss. Their Wednesday away game against the Lafayette Leopards was a close one, with a final score of 6-5.
The first inning proved to be a strong start, with three runs scored. An RBI single sent into right field by Andreaus Lewis pushed Jeremy Sosa across home plate, and Vincent Samuel scored the second run off of Trevor Hansen’s sacrifice fly. With two Jaspers on second and third base, Dylan Mayer sent a base hit down center to bring in the third run.
The Leopards hit two runs across three innings, and the Jaspers hit their stride in the fifth inning again. Both teams were tied up 8-8 heading into the final inning, where the Leopards took it, scoring one more run to end the game.
While a devastating loss, Mayer proved to be a strong asset to the team with a total of three hits across the game, the most out of his teammates.
On Friday, the Jaspers began their three-game conference series against Sacred Heart University.
Both games on Friday were losses, with scores of 7-8 and 7-22. The Jaspers fell behind pretty early in game one with the Pioneers scoring six runs. Senior Trevor Hansen showed out in the early innings, hitting a two-run home run while also putting up a double in the ninth inning. Ultimately it was not enough to claim the win, as the Jaspers turned their focus to game two.
Game two was an aggressive battle, with the Pioneers remaining on top. Hansen continued his successful afternoon by securing three hits for the Jaspers, with junior Josiah Brown entering the game as a pinch hitter to secure a ground-rule double down the right field line. The Pioneers purely had a higher amount of hits by the end of the game to win it.
Track and Field
Manhattan’s women’s and men’s track teams took on the Metropolitan Outdoor Championship on Friday, with more details coming soon.
On the women’s side, Camryn Daley, Oliviah Hussey, SaRae Kennard and Tranira Booker took home first place for the 4×100-meter relay race, with a time of 47.75 seconds. Freshman Kayla Darius proved to be a standout by finishing second place in the women’s triple jump with a mark of 11.55 meters.
For the men, Myron Corpuz captured first place in the men’s hammer throw with a mark of 53.57 meters. Corpuz didn’t stop there, winning the men’s shot put with 14.66 meters and finishing in eighth place for the men’s javelin throw.
Softball
Manhattan’s women’s softball played Quinnipiac twice on Friday afternoon, unfortunately bringing home losses.
In game one, Quinnipiac came out strong, scoring quickly while Manhattan secured two singles from Samantha Kelly and Lainey Brown, even though they were both caught stealing second. The most offensive momentum from the Jaspers was seen in the fourth and fifth innings where two straight singles were hit.
Game one ended 6-0, with the Jaspers unable to secure a run.
In game two, Manhattan was determined to make a comeback after their loss. The Bobcats used a similar strategy as game one, scoring early on. Freshman Kaitlyn Moody secured the first hit for the Jaspers in the second inning. In the top of the fifth, Angelina Gencarelli hit a one-out single. Then, Kelly hit a groundout which shoved Gencarelli across home plate to score the first run for Manhattan.
The game ended 10-1.