Box Score PURCHASE, N.Y. – The homers kept coming for Manhattanville in their second elimination game of the day, as the top-seeded Valiants hit three more long balls and again extended their run in the 2012 Freedom Conference Softball Championships with an 8-4 win over fourth-seeded Eastern on Saturday afternoon at Manhattanville Field.
 
With the victory, Manhattanville (20-16) advances to the championship round of the tournament for the second straight year and will need to defeat second-seeded Misericordia twice in order the claim the title. Eastern (21-21-1), which was picked to finish last in the conference preseason poll, has its great season come to a close with the loss.
 
The middle of the order again did much of the damage for Manhattanville, as senior Ashley Dell (Huntington Station, N.Y./Huntington), junior Jessica Van Galen (Bedford Hills, N.Y./Fox Lane) and freshman Laura Montalto (Bronx, N.Y./Preston) combined for seven hits, three homers, seven runs batted in and six runs scored. Van Galen went 3 for 4 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Montalto had a three-run homer of her own and Dell had two hits, scored twice and drove in a pair.
 
As opposed to the first game of the day, this contest saw Manhattanville jump out to an early lead and never look back. The Valiants opened the scoring in the top of the second, when Montalto reached first on a wild pitch and eventually came home on an RBI single from sophomore Shauna Mulkerin (Branchburg, N.J./Immaculata).
 
The team added two more in the third, as Dell and Van Galen went back-to-back with two down to triple the lead. Eastern got one of those runs back in the third on an RBI groundout by Jessica Baker.
 
That was where the lead stayed until the Valiants put five on the board in the fifth to put the game away. After the first two reached via single and error, Dell drove the first run home with a single to center. Van Galen followed with a run-scoring single to make it 5-1, and then it was Montalto's turn to continue her terrific day, launching her third homer of Saturday to make it an 8-1 lead.
 
Eastern attempted to mount a comeback, scoring twice in the sixth and once in the seventh. The Eagles even brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh after loading the bases with two outs, but junior Katie Pitcher (Cold Spring, N.Y./Valley Central) induced a ground out from Baker to end the contest and send the Valiants into the championship round.
 
Pitcher (7-3) earned the win in relief for Manhattanville, allowing three runs over the final 3.2 innings. Classmate Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Sask./Craik) started the game for the Valiants, but left due to injury in the bottom of the fourth after allowing only one run on one hit through 3.1 innings.
 
Maggie McGowan (6-12) took the loss for Eastern, allowing six runs (five earned) on six hits in four innings. Janelle Fair tossed the final three innings, ceding two runs on three hits.