Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – Behind the bat of senior Katie Pitcher (Cold Spring, N.Y./Valley Central) and the arm of sophomore Kristen Rodopoulos (Scarsdale, N.Y./The Ursuline School), the Manhattanville softball team started its 2013 Freedom Conference schedule on the right foot with a two-game sweep of Eastern on Friday afternoon at Eagles Field. The Valiants won the first game, 3-0, before working extra innings to pull out a 7-4 (9 inn.) win to complete the sweep.
 
Pitcher led the Valiant offense with two home runs and four runs batted in to help defeat the Eagles, homering once in each game. Senior Jessica Van Galen (Bedford Hills, N.Y./Fox Lane) continued her torrid start to the year by going 4 for 8 with a homer and three runs scored, as her .500 day actually dropped her batting average to a mere .679 through nine games.
 
In the circle Rodopoulos starred for Manhattanville against Eastern, tossing a combined 12.0 scoreless innings as the game-one starter and a game-two reliever to pick up a pair of wins.
 
In the first game of the conference season, Manhattanville scored three times in the first inning and Rodopoulos was on her game in the circle as the Valiants took the front end of the twinbill by a 4-0 score.
 
Manhattanville did not waste any time jumping on Eastern ace Janelle Fair (4-5), scoring three runs in the first inning to take an early lead. After the first batter of the game was retired, senior Brianna Scapperotti (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) laid a bunt down the third base line and beat the throw to first for a single, and Pitcher followed with a two-run homer to left field to make it 2-0 Valiants. After Van Galen singled and moved to third on an error and a wild pitch, sophomore Laura Montalto (Bronx, N.Y./Preston) extended the lead to three with an RBI double.
 
Staked to a three-run lead before even entering the circle, Rodopoulos (2-4) was masterful against the Eastern lineup in posting her second shutout of the season. The sophomore limited the Eagles to just three hits and struck out six in seven innings of work, allowing only two EU players to reach scoring position all game long.
 
Junior Kirsten Savage (Harrington Park, N.J./Old Tappan) gave the visitors a four-run lead with an RBI single in the top of the seventh, plating sophomore pinch-runner Cori-Bianca Embler (Beacon, N.Y./Beacon), who came on after a single from senior Kim Angiolillo (White Plains, N.Y./Good Counsel Academy).
 
The roles changed in game two as Manhattanville played catch up throughout the contest, but the Valiants were able to overcome a pair of two-run deficits and finally broke through three times in the ninth inning to secure the sweep with a 7-4 extra-inning victory.
 
After seven innings could not decide a winner, neither team scored in the eighth before Manhattanville used the long ball for a three-run rally in the ninth to finally take control for the first time all game. Sophomore Rosaria Callara (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) got the rally started with a one-out double, and after a ground out Pitcher launched her second long ball of the game over the left-field fence to make it 6-4 Valiants. That would have provided a nice bookend along with her first two-run homer of the game, but Van Galen ruined that storyline by destroying a subsequent Fair offering way over the left-field wall to give the visitors a three-run cushion.
 
Rodopoulos set the Eagles down in the ninth to secure the victory, her second of the day. Rodopoulos (3-4) came on in relief of senior Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Sask./Craik) and tossed five scoreless innings, striking out five and allowing only three hits. Taylor earned the no-decision after allowing four unearned runs on three hits in four innings.
 
After jumping out early in game one, the Valiants showed their resiliency in game two, twice coming back from two runs down to even the score and set the stage for the dramatic finish.
 
Eastern struck first in the bottom of the first, thanks to a two-run single from Katelyn Donald, but the Valiants got those runs back in the third when a Van Galen fly ball was misplayed by the left fielder, allowing two runs to score. Two more unearned runs came across the plate for the Eagles in the fifth inning, but Manhattanville came right back to tie it in the top of the sixth, as Van Galen, Montalto and Angiolillo recorded back-to-back-to-back doubles.
 
The top-six of the Valiant lineup all excelled in the game-two win, with Callara, Scapperotti, Pitcher, Van Galen, Montalto and Angiolillo all picking up two hits apiece. Pitcher had a team-best two RBI and also scored once, while Van Galen accounted for three runs (two scored, one driven in) and Callara scored a pair.
 
Manhattanville (5-7, 2-0 Freedom) will be back in action tomorrow afternoon, as the Valiants return home to Manhattanville Field for the first time this year to host defending champion Misericordia for a Freedom Conference doubleheader starting at noon.