DANBURY, Conn. – The Manhattanville College softball team closed out the 2015 season on Sunday afternoon, dropping 10-2 and 12-3 decisions to Western Connecticut State University in non-conference action at Westside Field.
Manhattanville scored the first two runs of game one, but Western Connecticut came back with the final 10 runs to earn a 10-2 win in six innings.
The Valiants managed only two hits in the first game of the day, both coming off the bat of sophomore
Shelbee Damianos (Ojai, Calif./Nordhoff). Damianos and freshman
Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester) scored the team's two runs on the day as well.
The Valiants scored two runs in the first inning without the benefit of a hit. Ventarola led off the game with a walk and moved to second when Damianos was hit by a pitch, and came home when sophomore
Adrena Daw (Crompond, N.Y./Walter Panas) reached on an error. Two wild pitches allowed Damianos to come all the way around to score as well, putting the visitors ahead early.
Senior
Rosaria Callara (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) kept Western Connecticut off the scoreboard for the first two innings, but the Colonials struck for four runs in the third to take the lead. The big blow in the inning was a three-run homer off the bat of Julia Bocek, which gave WCSU a 4-2 lead. The home team added two more in the third inning and then four more in the sixth, with the game ending on Bocek's second three-run homer of the game.
Manhattanville again held a lead early in game two, but Western Connecticut again scored the final 10 runs of the afternoon to complete the sweep with a 12-3 victory.
Damianos and junior
Alyx Scapperotti (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) led the Valiants with two hits each in the second game of the day. Ventarola went 1 for 2 and drove in a pair, while Callara had a hit, RBI and run scored in her final collegiate game.
Western Connecticut took the early lead in game two with two runs in the bottom of the first, but Manhattanville came back with three in the top of the second. Daw started the rally with a leadoff double and came home on a Callara RBI single. After the next two batters were retired, Ventarola came through with a clutch two-run, two-out single to put her team ahead.
The Valiants mustered only three hits the rest of the way against Alle Sabith, while West Conn scored two runs in the second inning to retake the lead and then tacked on three in the third and five more in the fourth to take a nine-run advantage.
The doubleheader marks the end of Manhattanville's 2015 season. The Valiants, who ended the season missing five of their nine projected starters due to injury, will look to be back at full strength when they seek a second Freedom Conference title in three seasons in 2016.
