TUCSON, Ariz. – The Manhattanville College softball team split a pair of games on the third and final day of the 2018 NFCA D-III Leadoff Classic on Sunday, coming back to defeat Pacific Lutheran University, 6-4, before suffering a 7-0 loss to #24 Berry College.
 
Freshman Isela Casillas (Chula Vista, Calif./Eastlake) led the Valiants by hitting .600 (3 for 5) with a double, a run batted in and a run scored on the day. Junior Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) also had three hits and tied with freshman Brooke Franson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar) for the team lead with two RBIs.
 
Manhattanville 6, Pacific Lutheran 4
 
Manhattanville came back to earn a win in the first game outing of the day, scoring the final five runs of the game to defeat Pacific Lutheran by a 6-4 score.
 
Buboi and Franson both drove in a pair of runs to lead the Valiant charge. Casillas and sophomore Sam Jedrey (La Canada Flintridge, Calif./La Canada) both had a pair of hits as well, matching Buboi for the team lead.
 
Casillas got the Valiants on the board first in the bottom of the second inning, as she followed a Jedrey double with a two-out RBI single. However, the Lutes came back with four runs in the top of the third off junior Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) to grab a three-run lead; however, senior Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) came on in relief with two runners in scoring position and got a strikeout to end the threat.
 
Franson got one run back with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, but the big inning came in the sixth. After the first two batters were retired, Casillas doubled to get in scoring position and eventually came home on a Franson base hit. After a walk, Buboi delivered the big hit with a two-run single to put the Valiants back on top, and graduate student Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) followed with a single to provide an insurance run.
 
Feeney (3-1) earned the win in relief, scattering two hits and striking out a pair in 4.1 innings of scoreless work.
 
Berry 7, Manhattanville 0
 
Manhattanville went up against a tough Berry squad in game two, and could not get the big hits when needed in a 7-0 loss to the nationally ranked Vikings.
 
Feeney (3-2) started the game and tossed two innings, allowing three Berry runs in the second inning, with two coming on a home run by Katlin Seger. Freshman Jasmine Feliciano (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) pitched well in relief for the Valiants, allowing only two hits in her first three frames before giving up a pair of two-run homers in the sixth inning.
 
The Valiants had chances against Berry starter Kassie Howard, stranding two runners in scoring position in the fourth inning and leaving the bases loaded in the fifth before the Vikings broke the game open in the sixth.
 
After a few days back on campus, Manhattanville will head south next weekend for four games at the Virginia Wesleyan Beach Blast, beginning on Friday with games against Penn College of Technnology and Roanoke College.