Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 NEW YORK, N.Y. – Senior Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Sask./Craik) tossed the fifth perfect game in recent Manhattanville softball history in leading the Valiants to a convincing doubleheader sweep of Hunter in non-conference action on Wednesday afternoon at Randall's Island. The visitors took the first game by a 9-0 score and the second game by a 10-2 margin.
 
The first game of the day was all about Taylor, who faced the minimum 15 batters in five innings as the Valiants rolled to a 9-0 victory.
 
The senior allowed only two balls out of the infield in posting the first perfecto by a Valiant since Maura Bruen '09 on March 8, 2009 against PSU-Abington, striking out eight Hawks in all. Taylor (11-6) is only the third Manhattanville hurler since 2001 to record multiple no-hit efforts, after the then-freshman no-hit John Jay almost exactly four years earlier on April 6, 2010.
 
Manhattanville also had no trouble at the plate, scoring twice in the first and fourth innings as well as five times in the third. Freshman Shelbee Damianos (Ojai, Calif./Nordhoff) went 3 for 4 with an RBI and three runs scored, while Taylor helped her own cause by going 2 for 3 with four runs batted in and two runs scored.
 
The Valiants opened the scoring with back-to-back RBI doubles from Damianos and classmate Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) in the first inning, but the big damage came in a five-run third. Taylor doubled with the bases loaded to make it a 4-0 game, and that was followed by another two-run two-bagger off the bat of senior Kirsten Savage (Harrington Park, N.J./Old Tappan) and a run-scoring single from senior Shauna Mulkerin (Branchburg, N.J./Immaculata) to make it a 7-0 score.
 
A two-run homer by Taylor in the fourth inning capped the scoring and made her quest for perfection a lot easier, as it invoked the eight-run mercy rule after she set down the Hawks in order in the fifth.
 
There was no perfection for the Valiants in game two, but the visitors still scored seven times in the first three innings in cruising to a 10-2 victory.
 
Multiple Valiants had good efforts at the plate, led by sophomore Alyx Scapperotti (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) with a game- and career-high three hits to go with two runs scored and an RBI. Mulkerin went 2 for 2 with a homer, double, three RBIs and two runs scored, while Savage also drove in two and scored once.
 
Manhattanville (13-7) again wasted little time getting on the board, scoring three times in the first thanks to a wild pitch with the bases loaded followed by a two-run double from Savage. The second inning saw RBI triples from Damianos and junior Rosaria Callara (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) along with a Scapperotti run-scoring single in between, giving the visitors a five-run edge after two frames.
 
A two-run double by Mulkerin in the third inning made it an 8-1 score. The Valiants reached the eight-run margin in the sixth inning, when Mulkerin led off with a homer and freshman Melissa Iarocci (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) followed with an RBI single to plate Scapperotti with the team's 10th run.
 
Taylor started the game, striking out the side while allowing an unearned run in the first inning before ceding the circle to senior Emily Frawley (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains), who allowed one run on eight hits over the final five frames to improve to 2-1 on the year.
 
Manhattanville will get back into Freedom Conference play this weekend, as the Valiants host Wilkes for two key games on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. at Manhattanville Field.