CLERMONT, Fla. - The Manhattanville College softball team got the 2016 season off to a good start on Saturday at the Spring Games, defeating Cedar Crest College by a 14-0 score and the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg by a 9-5 margin.

Freshman Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) led Manhattanville (2-0) with a team-best four hits and five runs scored in the two games, while four teammates had three hits apiece on the day. Freshman Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) went 3 for 6 with a triple and four runs scored, while sophomore Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester) recorded three hits, three runs scored, two RBIs and a pair of walks as well.

GAME ONE

Manhattanville dominated the first game of the day, pounding out 11 hits in four innings and getting a near no-hitter from sophomore Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) in her collegiate debut in a 14-0 (5 inn.) victory over Cedar Crest.

Freshmen Evonne Torres (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Pioneer) and Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) led the Valiants to the win, as Torres went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored while Chapelone had two hits, scored once and drove in three. Ventarola and juniors Adrena Daw (Crompond, N.Y./Walter Panas) and Alicia Marino (Mahopac, N.Y./Pleasantville) all drove in two runs apiece for Manhattanville as well in the win.

In the circle, Feeney took a no-hitter into the fifth in her first college appearance, allowing just one hit and striking out five to pick up the win.

Cedar Crest's best chance to score came in the first inning after a hit batter and a walk to the first two members of the Falcon lineup. But a fielder's choice, a caught stealing at home plate and a groundout got Feeney out of the jam.

The Valiants then came to bat and scored four times on just two hits. After two Cedar Crest errors, Torres singled home one run and, after another error produced a second run, Ventarola doubled home two more to double the Valiant advantage.

The floodgates opened in the second inning, with seven more runs crossing the plate. Torres again started the scoring with an RBI single, followed by a two-run triple off the bat of Marino. Hartenstein added a run-scoring single of her own, and then Chapelone added the big blow with a bases-clearing double to conclude the frame.

Manhattanville added three more in the fourth inning thanks to an RBI single from sophomore Laurel Coito (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic) and a two-run triple from Daw. Feeney, meanwhile, kept Cedar Crest with a zero in the hits column until a pinch-hit single by Nicole Ortiz-Siffel with one out in the final frame.

GAME TWO

The offense kept humming in the second game of the day, as the Valiants scored the first eight runs of the day on the way to a 9-5 win over Pitt-Greensburg.

Buboi was the team's top performer at the plate in game two, going 3 for 5 with three runs scored and one run batted in. Junior Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) had two hits and drove in three in her first game in 22 months, and Marino recorded two hits and a pair of RBIs as well.

A pair of freshmen got the job done in the circle for Manhattanville, as Julianna Orrico (Bronx, N.Y./Preston) allowed five unearned runs on eight hits in 5.2 innings to earn her first collegiate win while Hartenstein earned the save by tossing 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.

Manhattanville again got out to an early lead, as Chapelone scored on a Buboi single and Torres added a sacrifice fly to put the Valiants up 2-0 after half an inning. The squad got one more in the second on a Diemicke groundout that scored Hartenstein, who led off with a triple; that tandem worked again in the fourth, when Diemicke tripled to score her former high-school teammate.

The Valiants got two more in both the fifth and sixth innings to extend their lead, thanks to RBI singles from Marino and Diemicke in the fifth and run-scoring hits from Buboi and Marino again in the next frame.

Hartenstein came on to get the last out of the sixth inning after Orrico ran into her first real trouble of the game, and junior Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) added to the Valiant lead in the seventh inning with an RBI double before Hartenstein closed the door in the bottom half to secure the win.

Manhattanville will be back in action tomorrow with two more games, as the Valiants take on Marywood University at 9 a.m. and Lebanon Valley College at 11 a.m.