PURCHASE, NY – Senior Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) was dominant in the circle and the Valiant bats came alive late in Game One as the Manhattanville College softball team split a Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom doubleheader with the Misericordia University Cougars Saturday April 13, winning 8-0 in the first game before falling 6-2 in the second game.

Hartenstein retired 10 in a row between the first and fourth innings, not allowing a hit until the fifth inning of game one for Manhattanville (25-2, 9-1 MACF). Senior Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) and sophomores Isela Casillas (Chula Vista, Calif./Eastlake) and Jordyn Boyd (Woodinville, Wash./Woodinville) all had two hits, with Boyd driving in two runs as well.

In the second game, sophomore Jasmine Feliciano (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) also carried a no-hitter into the fifth before the long ball did the Valiants in, as Misericordia (22-10, 7-3 MACF) went back-to-back in the fifth and added another in the top of the seventh.

GAME ONE: Following a two-out hit by pitch in the top of the first, Hartenstein did not allow another baserunner until Miranda Bohn led off the fifth with a single to center. While Misericordia's Brooke Moyle struggled keeping runners off the base paths, allowing three hits and walking two batters through four, she did match Hartenstein zero for zero on the scoreboard until the fifth.

With one out and a runner on in the bottom of the fifth, freshman Giovanna Liggett (Fountain Valley, Calif./Edison) doubled to left field, scoring sophomore Brooke Franson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar) with the game's first run. Buboi and classmate Evonne Torres (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Pioneer) both followed with singles, Liggett scoring on Torres'. A Hartenstein single to right and error on the throw back to the infield scored both Torres and Buboi, and a home run from Boyd made it 6-0 Manhattanville. After a ground out, graduate Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester) doubled to left, then scored on a pair of wild pitches. Franson, up for the second time in the inning, doubled down the right field line, then scored on a double by Casillas, giving Manhattanville the five-inning win via the eight-run mercy rule.

GAME TWO: As was the case with Hartenstein in the first game, Feliciano hit a batter in the first inning and carried a no-hitter into the fifth. Manhattanville carried a 1-0 lead to the fifth, thanks to a Misericordia fielding error scoring Boyd in the bottom of the second.

With one out and one on in the top of the fifth, Brianna Holder and Ciaria DeLong hit back-to-back home runs, putting Misericordia on top 3-1. The Cougars added two more in the top of the sixth, pushing their lead out to 5-1. Torres launched a no-doubt-about-it-moonshot in the bottom of the inning, trimming the margin back to 5-2, but Maddie Holub knocked a four-bagger of her own in the top of the seventh for the final run of the game.

The Valiants are right back in action tomorrow when they welcome the Western Connecticut State University Colonials to Manhattanville Field for a non-conference doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.