Box Score SALISBURY, Md. – Less than an hour removed from a 190-pitch marathon, senior
Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Sask./Craik) bounced right back with a two-hit shutout as the Manhattanville softball team advanced to the championship round of the Salisbury, Maryland Regional with a 3-0 victory over NFCA #24 William Paterson at the NCAA Div. III Softball Championships, hosted by Salisbury University on Saturday at the SU Softball Field.
Manhattanville (29-9) advances to the title round of the regional for the first time in program history after doubling the program's number of NCAA Championship wins in a single day. The Valiants will take on top-seeded and NFCA #4 Salisbury tomorrow at noon, while William Paterson sees its excellent season come to a close with a 31-11 record.
Taylor (27-7) completed her incredible day with her school-record 10th shutout of the season, scattering only two hits and needing only one strikeout to completely shut down the nationally ranked Pioneers. She needed only 63 pitches with which to dispatch Paterson, and in the process tied Maggie Thomas '07 (27 in 2005 and 2006) for the school's single-season wins record.
She received offensive help from freshman
Shelbee Damianos (Ojai, Calif./Nordhoff), who went 2 for 3 with two runs driven in, as well as sophomore
Alyx Scapperotti (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison), who had two hits, scored once and drove in one. Senior
Emily Frawley (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) also had a pair of Manhattanville's eight hits, as the Valiants used some small ball to pull out the win after the run-scoring bonanza of game one.
After two scoreless innings, Manhattanville took control early with two runs in the third inning thanks to some two-run magic. Freshman
Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) started the rally by lacing a double to left center, but was only moved to third base with two down. Scapperotti picked up the slack, however, with an RBI single to center. Damianos continued her hot day at the plate with a sharp double to the fence, scoring Scapperotti all the way from first to double the Valiant lead.
Manhattanville got one more in the fifth inning, when Damianos again showed her All-Region credentials with an RBI single that plated junior
Rosaria Callara (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) for an insurance run that Taylor did not even need.
Meanwhile, William Paterson did themselves no favors at the plate by showing a lack of patience all game long against a surely tired Taylor. Taylor needed only 63 pitches to get through seven innings thanks in part to eight first-pitch swings and 20 of 26 batters seeing three pitches or less. The senior threw more than 10 pitches in just two of the seven frames, starting with a six-pitch first that set the tone for the contest.
Manhattanville will need to beat Salisbury twice tomorrow, as the Sea Gulls are coming out of the winner's bracket after a 1-0 win over William Paterson this morning. But after the dramatics of today, the Valiants will surely give it their best shot in the morning.
