Manhattan College softball season ends early

Manhattan College’s softball team was expected to have a much longer stay in Poughkeepsie than it turned out to be.

The Jaspers came rolling into the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Tournament with a full head of steam after winning its final nine conference games of the season and had allowed just three total runs in its final four games before heading upstate.

As the No. 2 seed in the tournament the Jaspers, with 30 wins on the season and a school-record 14 MAAC victories, was expected to challenge for the tourney championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Unfortunately, the Jaspers never made it out of the first day in the double-elimination tournament as they dropped a 1-0 decision to No. 6 Quinnipiac before seeing their season end in a 5-2 loss to fourth-seeded Monmouth in a pair of games played at Marist College.

It was a shocking turn of events for a team that had grandiose plans heading into the tournament.

“It was really unfortunate,” said Elena Bowman, the Jaspers senior catcher. “It wasn’t something that any of us saw coming.

Game one versus Quinnipiac was a particularly frustrating one for the Jaspers, who had a pair of excellent opportunities to get on the board early but failed both times. Bowman led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to center for the 200th hit of her illustrious career before Jenn Vazquez reached on an error to put runners on first and second with none out. But after Brianna Matazinsky moved pinch-runner Madison Bailey to third with a fly out to right field, the inning came to a crashing end when Lauren Pitney flew out to center and Vazquez was doubled up trying to advance to second.

The Jaspers had another shot in the last of the sixth when Bowman drilled a one-out single to right-center. She moved to second on a passed ball and took third on Vazquez’s deep fly to right. But Matzinsky bounced out to the pitcher to end the threat.

Quinnipiac cashed in in the top of the seventh when, with two out and nobody on, Matazinsky walked Erin Larsen and a single by Dani Edwards put runners on first and second. Casey Herzog then knocked in what turned out to be the game-winning run with a single to center for the game’s only run.

“It just seemed like we couldn’t get the big hit,” Bowman said. “We were getting people on and we had the right people up.”

Homer ends season

Game two versus Monmouth, played two hours later, was equally frustrating.

After falling into a 2-0 hole early in the game, the Jaspers pulled even at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Vazquez scored on a Monmouth error. But with the bases still loaded and just one out, and an opportunity for Manhattan to break the game open, Monmouth starting pitcher Amanda Riley got Stephanie Reinhardt to pop out before striking out Anna Crowley to end the inning.

Three innings later, Manhattan saw its season come to an end when Monmouth got a three-run homer from Jill Freese to cap the 5-2 victory for the Hawks.

But right up until the final out Bowman said she held out hope of a comeback.

“We were here in my sophomore year and we lost the first game of the tournament and then we came back to win four in a row and before we lost the championship game,” Bowman said. “We always felt we could do it. There was never any doubt that we could do it. We just came out on the short end of it. We just weren’t finding any holes so it’s really unfortunate because those were two games we could have come away with.

“It’s unfortunate because we came into the tournament feeling like everything was coming together and someone would step up,” she continued. “It was kind of deflating when we didn’t get our leadoff hitter on. When they hit that three-run homer I still believed, ‘Hey, we’re going to get somebody on and we’re going to go.’ But we just couldn’t get anyone on. It was frustrating.”

It was a depressing end to a sensational season for the Jaspers, who logged 30 wins in a season for the first time since 1993 and set that school mark with 14 conference victories. It also spelled the end of Bowman’s brilliant career as she finished as the school’s all-time home run leader with 52 — one of only two players in MAAC history to top 50 homers in a career — and was second all-time on the Jaspers RBI list with 154. She is also just one of three players in Manhattan history to top 200 career hits.

Big cleats to fill

 “I think it was a great season but we still came up short of what we were working for,” said Bowman, who was named to the All-MAAC First Team this season. “Our goal was to win a championship. Every year since I’ve been here that was our goal. To make the tournament and not win is frustrating. I am proud of what we did here this year but I knew this team was capable of doing so much more. But I think this program is one step closer than it was last year and a step closer than the year before. It takes a while to build something, and I think Manhattan College is well on its way.”

But the continued growth of the program will now come without Bowman, who will leave some rather large cleats to fill next season.

“I miss it every day. I miss it every hour of every day,” Bowman said. “But it was a great ride. I loved playing ball here. I had a really great time. But I’m at peace with it. I gave it everything I had. I hope my teammates learned something from me and I know I learned from them. It was just an honor to wear this [uniform].”