PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Freedom Conference's top offense continued to shine on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Manhattanville Field, as the Manhattanville College softball team hit .490 as a team on the way to 12-0 and 19-11 conference victories over Delaware Valley.
The two wins keep Manhattanville (11-15, 3-7 Freedom) alive in the race for the Freedom Conference Tournament, but the Valiants will still need to win their last four games and get a little bit of help in order to reach the postseason.
Every Valiant had at least one hit and nine players drove in at least one run in the two victories. The top of the lineup led the way, as freshman
Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester) had five hits in eight at-bats to go with a homer, triple, seven RBIs and five runs scored, while sophomore
Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) went 4 for 6 with three RBIs and five runs scored.
Ventarola led the Valiants in game one, going 3 for 3 with three RBIs and three runs scored as Manhattanville plated nine in the first inning and never looked back in a 12-0 win.
The Valiants sent 13 players to the plate in that first inning, a frame in which Ventarola went 2-for-2 and scored twice, and Deieso walked two times and came around to score on both occasions. The big hits of the inning came off the bats of junior
Alyx Scapperotti (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison), who plated a pair with a double, and sophomore
Shelbee Damianos (Ojai, Calif./Nordhoff), who hit a bases-clearing triple to drive in three.
Manhattanville added three more in the third inning. Grad student
Shauna Mulkerin (Branchburg, N.J./Immaculata) led off with a single and then came home on Ventarola's fourth homer of the season, and senior
Alyssa Casino (Rye Brook, N.Y./Maria Regina) added an RBI ground out to complete the scoring.
Senior
Rosaria Callara (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) pitched the final four innings as part of the shutout victory, allowing only one hit and striking out three to pick up her second win of the year.
The second game of the day had a similar start for the Valiants, as Manhattanville scored nine times in the first and six more in the second to take an insurmountable lead and then held off the Aggies in the latter innings for a 19-11 victory.
Ventarola again had a good game with four RBIs, while Deieso went 3 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Sophomore
Adrena Daw (Crompond, N.Y./Walter Panas) had two hits, including her first career homer, and drove in a pair as well, and classmate
Melissa Iarocci (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) also drove in two and scored three times.
The Valiants rolled through the order in the first inning, as all nine batters got on base and scored on the first time through the lineup. Deieso had two hits in the first inning, a run-scoring triple that plated the team's first run as well as a single that brought home the eight run of the frame. The triple was the only extra-base hit of the inning, with six other singles complementing two walks and two hit batters.
The home team added six more in the second inning to take a 15-2 lead after two. Ventarola tripled home two runs and Deieso added an RBI single – her third hit of the first two innings – to drive home Ventarola. Damianos and Daw then launched back-to-back homers to score three more runs.
Delaware Valley made things a little interesting with seven runs on only three hits in the fourth inning, but Manhattanville responded with four in the bottom half without the benefit of a hit to get back above the eight-run margin. After two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs, Casino and Mulkerin drew back-to-back free passes to drive in runs. A Ventarola fielder's choice and a wild pitch brought home the final two runs.
Callara (3-6) grinded out the victory in game two, allowing only six hits but working around 10 walks to give up nine earned runs in five innings.
Manhattanville faces another must-win Freedom Conference doubleheader tomorrow, as the Valiants take on King's (Pa.) College beginning at 1 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
