Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 PURCHASE, N.Y. – Senior Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Sask./Craik) hit her program single-season record 12th home run of the year and also earned two more victories in the circle as the Manhattanville softball team extended its winning streak to 10 straight with 9-0 and 9-1 victories over John Jay on a blustery Thursday afternoon at Manhattanville Field.
 
The two victories push the Manhattanville (21-7) winning streak to double digits and give the squad an impressive 19-1 record since coming back from Florida, tied for the best 20-game stretch of success in program history with the 2005 squad that posted a 20-1 mark over 21 games. The team also maintains its perfect home mark this year, improving to 12-0 at Manhattanville Field.
 
Senior Kirsten Savage (Harrington Park, N.J./Old Tappan) had a perfect day at the plate to lead the Valiants, going 5 for 5 with a homer, two RBIs, four runs scored and two walks in seven plate appearances. Junior Alyssa Casino (Rye Brook, N.Y./Maria Regina) went 3 for 5 with a homer and four runs scored, while freshman Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) had four hits and drove in three as well.
 
Taylor had no trouble with the John Jay lineup in game one, allowing only one single and striking out nine of the 15 batters she faced in a 9-0 win. The only ball that left the infield was a two-out single in the fourth off the bat of Danielle Minaya, but other than that Taylor made quick work of the Bloodhounds.
 
At the plate, Deieso went 2 for 3 with three runs batted in, while Savage had three hits and scored three times in three trips to the plate. Casino also went 2 for 3 with an RBI and three runs scored in the victory.
 
After going down in order in the first inning, the Valiant bats awoke in the second, scoring three times to take a 3-0 lead. Casino started things off with an RBI double along the right-field line, and Deieso followed with a two-run double to give the home team a three-run lead.
 
Manhattanville looked like it might squander a good chance to score in the third inning, after Sara McKenna induced a pair of groundouts with the bases loaded. But senior Shauna Mulkerin (Branchburg, N.J./Immaculata) unloaded the bases with a double to left field, and junior Rosaria Callara (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) followed with a run-scoring single, making it a 7-0 game after three.
 
The home team tacked on two more in the fourth, when Savage and Casino perfectly executed a double steal from first and third to score the former before the latter came home on a Deieso RBI single.
 
Manhattanville was held scoreless for the first three innings of game two, but the Valiants finally broke through with seven runs in the fourth on the way to a 9-1 win also in five innings.
 
The turning point of the game was the fourth, when the Valiants sent 11 players to the plate to finally break through against John Jay starter Lana Kovac. Deieso doubled and Mulkerin walked to start the rally, and a Callara bunt single turned into two runs when the throw went past the bag. A sacrifice fly by freshman Shelbee Damianos (Ojai, Calif./Nordhoff) made it a two-run lead, but that was just the start of the excitement.
 
Taylor came to the plate after a single by freshman Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) and unloaded on a Kovac offering, sending it over the fence for her 12th home run of the season, breaking a tie with Michele Ribeiro '07 for first place on the single-season list. Savage followed that with her third homer of the year, but Casino made it even better by smacking the team's third homer in a span of four pitches, marking the first time in program history the Valiants ever went back-to-back-to-back.
 
Suddenly staked to a lead, Taylor retired the Bloodhounds in order in the fifth as Manhattanville scored two more in the fifth on RBI singles by Taylor and Savage to complete the sweep.
 
The Valiants will close out Freedom Conference play while also honoring the team's three departing seniors with Senior Day on Saturday before the Valiants host Eastern for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.