CLERMONT, Fla. – The Manhattanville College softball team completed a perfect Spring Break trip with two more victories on Friday morning, defeating The Sage Colleges by a 12-4 score and then outlasting Haverford College, 9-6, to finish the day and the week undefeated.
Manhattanville (10-0) extends the best start to a season in program history with the two victories. The team's previous winning streak of 10 games or more came in 2014, when the squad won 13 games in a row on the way to a conference title.
Freshman
Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) led Manhattanville at the plate and in the circle, hitting .625 (5 for 8) with a homer and four runs batted in while also picking up the win in game one. Classmate
Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) had a homer and four RBIs as well, while junior
Alicia Marino (Mahopac, N.Y./Pleasantville) drove in a team-leading six runs in the two victories.
GAME ONE Hartenstein homered and drove in three runs at the plate and also tossed a complete game to earn her first collegiate victory in the circle as Manhattanville started the day with a 12-4 (5 inn.) win over Sage.
Hartenstein was one of four Valiants to record multiple hits and multiple RBIs on the day, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Buboi also homered and went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs scored, while junior
Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) and sophomore
Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester) both had two hits and drove in two as well.
After the teams traded runs in the first inning, Manhattanville scored three times in the second to take the lead for good. Ventarola singled home Diemicke and junior
Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) to make it a 3-1 game, and Buboi added an RBI double to score Ventarola.
Sage got two runs back in the third inning, but the Valiants came back with five in the fourth and three in the fifth to end the game early. A two-run double by Marino and a three-run homer off the bat of Hartenstein did all the damage in the fourth, while a Buboi homer and a two-run single from Diemicke helped get the Valiants to a nine-run lead.
Making her first collegiate start, Hartenstein allowed three earned runs on eight hits in five innings, striking out two to earn her first career victory.
GAME TWO In the final game of spring break, Marino drove in three runs and sophomore
Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) completed a perfect week with a 12-strikeout performance as the Valiants took down Haverford by a 9-6 score.
Marino had a pair of doubles on the way to driving in a team-high three runs, and was helped along by a three-hit effort from Hartenstein and two RBIs from Buboi. All three players also extended their hitting streaks to 10 games to start the season.
Feeney, meanwhile, allowed only three earned runs in seven innings and finished one back of the program single-game record with her 12 strikeouts, getting eight swinging and four looking to overmatch the Fords.
Manhattanville spotted Haverford a 2-0 lead after a Jessica Koshinski homer in the bottom of the second before responding with six runs in the top of the third. Freshman
Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) struck the first blow with a two-run single that tied the score, followed by run-scoring singles by Buboi and classmate
Evonne Torres (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Pioneer). The Valiant lead then doubled after back-to-back doubles from Marino and Hartenstein, giving the team a 6-2 advantage.
The Fords got back within a run thanks to three runs in the fourth inning, but the Valiants got those three back in the sixth to give themselves a comfortable lead. Buboi knocked in one run with a bases-loaded groundout, and Marino continued to come up clutch with a two-run double that gave her team some breathing room.
Manhattanville will have a week of practice back up north before getting into MAC Freedom play next Saturday with a big doubleheader against King's (Pa.) College beginning at 1 p.m. at Manhattanville Field.
