Sewitt Leads Manhattan to Back-to-Back MAAC Baseball Championships
MAAC Sports
Troy, N.Y. - Senior Taylor Sewitt pitched 11 shutout innings to lead Manhattan College to its second consecutive MAAC Baseball Championship at Joe Bruno Stadium. The Jaspers earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship and will find out their regional site tomorrow at noon on ESPNU.
Sewitt, the tournament's Most Valuable Player, entered the game after Manhattan starter Matt Jordan loaded the bases with no outs in the first. He allowed a 2-RBI single to center to Canisius' Jimmy Luppens, but the Griffs would not score again. Sewitt allowed five hits and three walks while striking out five. For the championship, he went 3-0 (all elimination games) in 22 innings, allowing zero runs on 10 hits and striking out 20. Sewitt threw 296 pitches in his three appearances.
Junior first baseman Kyle Murphy was the Jaspers' offensive hero as he lined an RBI single up the middle in the top of the 11th inning that scored sophomore shortstop Yoandry Galan in what proved to be the game-winning run. It was Murphy's only hit of the game, but it came in a primetime moment off of the 2012 MAAC Relief Pitcher of the Year Jon Fitzsimmons.
Runs were extremely difficult to come by on Sunday in a do-or-die game for both teams. The Jaspers surrendered their only two runs in the first inning after a lead off hit and a pair of walks off Jordan. Sewitt was called out of the bullpen to settle the situation approximately 13 hours after earning his second victory of the tournament. He helped the Jaspers avoid elimination on Saturday evening pitching the final two innings of a 5-4 walk-off victory over the Golden Griffs.
The resilient Jaspers chipped away at the deficit beginning in the top of the third inning. Galan posted a one out double down the left field line and junior second baseman Nick Camastro singled him in to get within 2-1. Camastro was dominant at the plate on Sunday, batting 4-for-6, to cap off a stellar MAAC Tournament where he hit .476 (10-21) in five starts.
Manhattan tied the ballgame in the fourth inning after freshman third baseman Joe McClennan's infield single and sophomore left fielder Chris Kalousdian's double to right field advanced McClennan to third. It set the Jaspers up to tie the game on a wild pitch by Canisius starting pitcher Rohn Pierce. McClennan finished 2-for-3 in the ballgame.
The Jaspers left 13 runners on base with the Golden Griffs burning seven pitchers in the contest. While on the flip side, Sewitt left 12 Canisius runners stranded on base en route to his 11th victory of the season, which ranks as the second most in program history only behind Chris Cody's 12 victories in 2006. Sewitt scattered five hits and struck out five batters in the longest performance of his career.
Jasper juniors Ramon Ortega, Brendan Slattery, Joe Rock and Camastro were named to the 2012 MAAC All-Tournament Team joining Sewitt. Ortega had a tournament-high six RBI over five games. Rock smashed the game tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday to help the Jaspers avoid elimination against Canisius. And Slattery smacked the game winning run in extra innings of the same contest against the Golden Griffs. Camastro finished his MAAC Tournament with a .542 on-base percentage.
Also named to the All-Tournament Team were Canisius' Ronnie Bernick, Brooklyn Foster, and Garrett Cortright, Rider's Adam Wayman and Tyler Smith, and Fairfield's Scott Warwick and Brett Shulick.