Box Score SALISBURY, Md. – The Manhattanville softball team pounded out 23 hits and won the game with five runs in the top of the ninth inning as the Valiants remained alive in the Salisbury, Maryland Regional with a heart-pounding 15-10 victory over Penn State Berks in an elimination contest at the NCAA Div. III Softball Championships, hosted by Salisbury University at the SU Softball Field on Saturday afternoon.
 
Manhattanville (28-9) kept its regional hopes and its season alive with the win; the Valiants will face off with NFCA #24 William Paterson in another elimination contest beginning at approximately 5:15 p.m. Penn State Berks is eliminated from the regionals and has its season come to an end with a 29-10 record.
 
In a game that featured four lead changes and two ties just over the first six innings, Berks had a great opportunity to end it in the eighth inning, getting a leadoff double from Chelsea Bright and moving her to third with one out. The bases were loaded with one down when Megan Olsen hit a grounder to senior Shauna Mulkerin (Branchburg, N.J./Immaculata) at short, and she fired home to barely get the out and keep the game going. Senior Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Sask./Craik) then induced a harmless fly to right, allowing the game to enter the ninth inning.
 
Seizing on that momentum, Manhattanville came back with five runs in the top of the ninth to take its fifth and final lead of the afternoon. Back-to-back singles by Mulkerin and junior Rosaria Callara (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) started the winning rally, putting two with none out. Sophomore Alyx Scapperotti (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) followed with a gorgeous bunt that trickled along the first-base line and stayed fair, and Mulkerin made a heads-up play to scamper home all the way from second for the go-ahead run. A two-run double from freshman Shelbee Damianos (Ojai, Calif./Nordhoff) and an RBI single from senior Kirsten Savage (Harrington Park, N.J./Old Tappan) helped to pad the lead, giving Manhattanville an insurmountable 15-10 lead that finally held up.
 
Multiple Valiants had excellent days at the plate, as eight of the nine starters had multiple hits and everyone had at least one RBI. Callara had a huge game, going 4 for 6 with a triple, two doubles and three runs scored, while Savage also had four hits in six trips. Damianos added three hits, three RBIs and two runs scored, matched by Mulkerin with three hits, an RBI and two runs - including the game-winner.
 
Taylor (26-7) earned the marathon victory in the circle, allowing six earned runs on 12 hits in nine full innings. The senior tossed 190 pitches, including six strikeouts and seven walks, moving her into sole possession of third place in Middle Atlantic Conference history for single-season victories.
 
After two innings of both teams threatening without scoring, the Valiants finally got a runner home in the third. Callara led off the frame by lacing a triple to right-center, but two quick outs left it up to freshman Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge), who delivered a run-scoring single up the middle for the game's first run.
 
In a theme that would recur throughout the day, the Valiant lead did not last long thanks to four Berks runs in the bottom half. Run-scoring singles from Colleen Hoge and Casey Hafer started the rally, but Callara did her part defensively by throwing out Hoge at the plate to help stem the Nittany Lion tide
 
Manhattanville responded nicely to the deficit in its next at-bat, matching Berks with four of its own to take the lead back. Savage started the rally with a single and came home on an RBI bloop single by freshman Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) down the right-field line. Callara remained red-hot with her third straight extra-base hit, a two-run double that knotted the score at four. Then Damianos got in on the action, lacing an RBI double to right that gave the Valiants back the lead.
 
Hoge evened the score for Penn State Berks in the fifth with a one-out homer, but Taylor responded leading off the fifth in the best way possible, by crushing a ball nearly 300 feet over the centerfield fence to put the Valiants back up. Manhattanville added another in the inning on another run-scoring single off the bat of Deieso, giving the visitors back a two-run advantage.
 
The see-saw battle continued in the bottom half, with the Nittany Lions coming back with four more runs of their own to regain the lead at 9-7, but then it again was the Valiants turn to come back, scoring three times in the top of the sixth. After the first three batters reached, Savage made it a 9-8 game with a single through the right side, and Diemicke tied the score by beating a throw to the plate on an infield grounder by senior Emily Frawley (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains). Mulkerin put the visitors back on top for the fourth straight inning with a sacrifice fly, scoring Taylor with the team's 10th run.
 
PSU Berks got one run in the bottom of the sixth to even the score, but the Valiants accepted that somewhat after the Nittany Lions had second and third with none out to start the frame. Deieso made a nice running catch along the right-field line to keep the go-ahead run at second, and Mulkerin handled two tough grounders at short to keep the home team at bay.
 
Amazingly, the teams remained scoreless over the next two innings before Manhattanville finally broke through in the ninth, extending the team's season by at least one game.