PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College softball team celebrated Senior Day by sweeping Eastern University by the score of 4-1 and 11-2 (5 inn.) on Saturday afternoon to capture the top seed in the upcoming MAC Freedom Tournament for the third straight year and fifth time in the last seven years.
 
Graduate student Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) had a big day at the plate for Manhattanville (21-13, 10-4 MAC Freedom), going 4-for-6 with a homer, three runs batted in and three runs scored. Senior Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester) also added three hits in five at-bats while junior Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) homered and drove in three as well.
 
Game 1: Manhattanville 4, Eastern 1
 
Senior Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) had another excellent outing in the circle for the Valiants, allowing one run on four hits in the game-one victory.
 
Manhattanville managed only five hits at the plate, partially due to some excellent defense by the Eagles and several line drives that managed to find a glove. Chapelone and classmate Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) both drove in two runs apiece to pace the Valiant attack.
 
Buboi put the home team up in the first inning with a sacrifice fly that should have been a homer if not for a great grab at the fence by leftfielder Rebecca Howard. Buboi doubled the Valiant lead with an RBI single in the third inning, as the Valiants led by a pair at the midway point.
 
Chapelone again doubled the Valiant lead with a two-run homer in the fourth inning to provide some insurance. Eastern managed to scrape across one run in the top of the seventh, but Feeney got a groundout and a strikeout to end the game.
 
Game 2: Manhattanville 11, Eastern 2 (5 inn.)
 
The offense came out in full force in game two, as the Valiants scored 10 runs in the first two innings on the way to a mercy-rule win.
 
Diemicke was a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBIs and three runs scored in the win, while Ventarola was 2-for-2 with a RBI and two runs scored. Junior Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) and sophomore Sam Jedrey (La Canada Flintridge, Calif./La Canada) joined Diemicke in hitting homers in the win.
 
Diemicke started the first-inning rally with an RBI single to place Ventarola, and that was followed by back-to-back homers from Jedrey and Hartenstein to give the Valiants a 4-0 lead after one frame. In the second inning, the first eight batters all reached base as part of a six-run rally, highlighted by run-scoring singles from Diemicke and Chapelone.
 
The Valiants capped the scoring with one more in the third, when Diemicke took the second pitch of the frame over the fence in center. Eastern picked up single unearned runs in the fourth and fifth, but there was little to be had against Hartenstein, who allowed only two hits in the five-inning win.
 
Manhattanville will close out the regular season tomorrow, when the Valiants host Ithaca College for two games at Manhattanville Field starting at noon.