PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College baseball team dropped a non-conference tilt against John Jay College of Criminal Justice Saturday afternoon 9-6 at Manhattanville Field.
 
The Valiant pitching staff fanned ten Bloodhounds in the game, but a grand slam in the fifth inning was the deciding factor for John Jay, coming from behind and holding off Manhattanville late to earn the victory.
 
Junior William Tempone struck out three batters over 2.2 innings of relief work and freshman Jarett Oehler struck out two in 1.1 innings out of the pen as well. At the plate, sophomore Luke Scoggins (Merrick, N.Y./Sanford H. Calhoun) went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and freshman Peter Iannarilli (West Nyack, N.Y./Clarkstown South) continued his hot hitting, recording two hits and two runs batted in.
 
Manhattanville jumped on top in the bottom of the first, scoring the game's first run on a wild pitch before senior Robbie Lynch (Bronx, N.Y./Fordham Prep) drove home Scoggins with a sacrifice fly to center field to give the Crimson and Black an early two-run advantage. John Jay responded two at bats later when three Bloodhounds crossed the plate, giving John Jay a 3-2 lead in the middle of the third. The deficit was short lived though as Iannarilli drove in two in the bottom half of the inning with a double to right field to retake the lead for Manahttanville. The Valiants added to their lead in the fourth on a two-run single off the bat of senior Chris Conklin (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland) for their biggest lead at 6-4 after four innings.
 
Continuing the back and forth trend, John Jay came up clutch in the top of the fifth to retake the lead for good. Jurreal Diaz took full advantage of a bases loaded situation, blasting a homer to right field to give the Bloodhounds an 8-6 lead that the Valiants could not recover from. John Jay added an insurance run in the eighth and stranded five Manhattanville runners in scoring position over the team's final five at bats.
 
Manhattanville returns to action tomorrow when they begin a stretch of six conference games in six days, starting with a twin bill Sunday afternoon on the road at Delaware Valley with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 pm.