NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College baseball team earned its sixth victory of the season this afternoon, defeating Manhattan 8-1 at City Park. Five scoreless innings from Blake Helmstetter including eight strikeouts, and a career-high four hits from Nick Carnevale led the Gaels to the win to even the series up with the Jaspers.

GAME SUMMARY

Just like in game one of the series, Iona got on the board first on RBI's from Luca Lotito and Carnevale. With runners on first and second, Lotito singled the other way to drive in the game's first run and Carnevale brought in Lotito with an RBI double to give Iona the early 2-0 lead. 

Iona had its best inning of the day in the fifth, scoring four runs off of five straight hits to break the game open. Phoenix Bowman led the inning off with a single and Carnevale drove him in from first on an RBI triple down the right field line. Jake Field followed up with a single up the middle to score Carnevale and after a ground-rule double from Nick Forney, Chris Mariani delivered the Gaels fifth straight hit on a two-run RBI single to give the Maroon & Gold a 6-0 lead.

Helmstetter did his part to keep the lead intact, striking out multiple batters in the second, third, and fourth inning. Helmstetter got into some trouble in the fifth after a one-out walk loaded the base up for the Jaspers, but a pop-up and an inning ending strikeout got Helmstetter and Gaels out of the jam. The lefty's afternoon concluded after the fifth, finishing with eight strikeouts on only five hits and no runs allowed. 

The Gaels picked up single runs in the sixth and seventh inning to add to their lead. With runners on first and second, Bowman would come around to score after an error from the Manhattan catcher on a failed pick off attempt, making it 7-0. Iona's last run of the game came off the bat of Mariani who launched a solo home run for his second of the season. 

Vicente Mendoza worked three scoreless innings out of the bullpen, retiring the first six batters he faced and then getting an inning end double play to end the eighth. Michael Untracht surrendered a run in the ninth but with the bases-loaded and only one gone, Untracht buckled down, getting two straight fly-outs to secure the Gaels 8-1 victory.

NOTABLE NUGGETS

• Helmstetter earned his second win of the season and his eight strikeout outing, extended his team lead of 53 total K's.  
• Carnevale finished his last game as a Gael with a career-best four hit performance to go along with two-RBI's. 
• Carnevale's fifth inning triple brings the Gaels total to 18 on the year which leads the MAAC and ranks them tied for 28th best in the country. The 18 three baggers are also a new school record, breaking the 2015 teams record of 14 triples. 
• Mariani drove in a career-high three runs on a new career-best two hits. The sophomore catcher/DH, now has 12 RBI's on 10 hits to go along with two home-runs on the season.
• For the sixth time this season, Field recorded three-hits as he now tied with Forney for the team lead in hits at 51. 
• As a team the Gaels had 14 hits with eight different players reaching base.

UP NEXT

On the final day of the regular season, Iona will go for the season win against Manhattan tomorrow morning at 10 A.M.  

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