Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – Junior Jessica Van Galen (Bedford Hills, N.Y./Fox Lane) and freshman Laura Montalto (Bronx, N.Y./Preston) both launched a pair of homers, but the Manhattanville softball team had to settle for a split in Saturday's Freedom Conference doubleheader with Delaware Valley. The Valiants won the first game, 7-1, but fell in game two by a 6-4 score.
 
With the split, Manhattanville (12-13, 7-3 Freedom) falls into a three-way tie for second place in the Freedom Conference with King's (Pa.) and Eastern and sits one game behind Misericordia with two weekend doubleheaders left to go in the regular season.
 
Van Galen and Montalto led Manhattanville offensively with two homers each over the course of the day, with Van Galen moving into second place on the school's all-time list with 20 round-trippers and also adding a team-leading five RBI as well. Freshman Kristen Rodopoulos (Scarsdale, N.Y./The Ursuline School) went 5 for 6 at the plate as well in her best offensive day of the year.
 
The Valiants started off the day well with a 7-1 victory in game one, as junior Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Sask./Craik) limited the Aggies from the circle and three Manhattanville homers helped pick up a victory.
 
Taylor (5-5) had another great outing for the Valiants, scattering eight hits and allowing just one run to earn her fifth win of the year. The junior struck out three and walked one in the complete-game victory.
 
At the plate, Manhattanville picked up 13 hits against Delaware Valley's Alexis Boucher, led by two each from Rodopoulos, senior Ashley Dell (Huntington Station, N.Y./Huntington) and junior Katie Pitcher (Cold Spring, N.Y./Valley Central). Rodopoulos and Montalto both went deep for the visitors, as did Van Galen, who homered and drove in four runs.
 
After both starters put up zeroes over the first two frames, the Valiants struck first in the top of the third inning with a pair of runs. Rodopoulos led off the frame with her first career homer, putting the Valiants up by a run. Three straight singles by junior Lynsey Schill (Waterloo, Ont./St. David Catholic), Pitcher and Dell loaded the bases with one out, and Van Galen got her bat on the ball to drive home Schill on an RBI groundout.
 
Taylor cruised through the Aggie lineup until the bottom of the fifth, when the home team scored their only run of the game. But the righthander buckled down to strike out Kasey Martini with the tying run on third base to keep the visitors ahead.
 
Manhattanville busted the game open in their last at-bat, scoring five times in the seventh to make it a more comfortable margin. Pitcher made it a 3-1 game with an RBI single and Van Galen followed with a big three-run homer, as the 19th round-tripper of her career gave the Valiants a 6-1 lead. After a ground out, Montalto re-took the team lead in homers with her fifth long ball of the year to complete the scoring.
 
The results were not there in game two, however, as the Valiants fell behind early and the team's late rally came up just short in suffering the 6-4 loss.
 
Delaware Valley got the scoring started in game two, touching Pitcher for an unearned run in the bottom of the first. But the big inning came in the fourth, as the Aggies scored four times with two outs to take a 5-0 lead. Martini delivered a two-run single to triple the lead, followed by run-scoring singles from Erin Fox and Allison Tomasino off Taylor to make it a five-run margin.
 
The Valiants chipped away at the Aggie lead, however, scoring twice in the fifth and twice more in the sixth to get back within one. Schill drove in the team's first run with an RBI groundout scoring junior Kim Angiolillo (White Plains, N.Y./Good Counsel Academy), who had led off with a double. Pitcher followed with an RBI single of her own before the team was retired in the fifth.
 
In the sixth frame, Van Galen and Montalto followed their script from game one, as both players went deep early in the inning to start the rally. Manhattanville followed with three straight base hits to load the bases with one out, but the Valiants could not get the tying run across the plate and remained down by a run.
 
Delaware Valley then added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, and the Valiants went down in order in the seventh to suffer the defeat.
 
Rodopoulos had a great day at the plate for Manhattanville in a losing effort, going a perfect 3 for 3 and scoring a run. Angiolillo and Pitcher has two hits apiece as well.
 
Pitcher (4-2) suffered the loss for the Valiants, allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits in 3.2 frames. Taylor came on in relief, allowing one unearned run on four hits in the final 2.1 innings. Whitney Stacey (4-6) allowed two runs on five hits over 4.1 innings to earn the win for Delaware Valley, while Boucher came on to earn the save by pitching the final 1.2 innings.
 
The Valiants will return to action on Wednesday, when the team travels to Hunter for a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. Delaware Valley (9-14, 2-8 Freedom) will take on Philadelphia Biblical on Tuesday at 3 p.m.