WILKES-BARRE, PA. – The Manhattanville College softball team continued its strong play Saturday afternoon, April 6, with a two-game road sweep of Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom foe Wilkes University, allowing just one run in 14 innings of victorious play against the Colonels.
 
The Valiants (22-1, 8-0 MACF) took game one over Wilkes (15-12, 4-4 MACF) by a score of 5-1, while bested the Colonels 3-0 in the second half of the doubleheader.
 
Game 1
Graduate student Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) and senior Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) headlined the first-game victory for Manhattanville. Feeney tossed 7.0 innings of one-run ball and struck out four, while Chapelone was responsible for driving in four of the Valiants' five runs with one swing – a grand slam in the top of the third.
 
Overall, Manhattanville did all of its scoring with the long ball. Neither team got on the board until the top of that fateful third inning. With one out, rookie Giovanna Liggett (Fountain Valley, Calif./Edison) battled with the Wilkes pitcher in an eight-pitch at-bat and took the final offering deep down the leftfield line for the solo shot, her third of the season, to make it 1-0. With two outs and two hits, a fielding error and a walk later, Chapelone stepped to the plate with the bases juiced and took the fourth pitch and sent it over the left centerfield fence to make it 5-1.
 
The Colonials scratched one across in the home half of the seventh, but a comeback was not to be as Feeney came away with her ninth victory of the season in the circle for the Valiants.
 
Game 2
Senior pitcher Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) took to the circle in the nightcap for Manhattanville and notched her 10th victory of the season. She went the full 7.0 innings, did not allow a run and struck out three. At the plate, another graduate student made waves in Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester). She was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs thanks to a two-run homer over the centerfield fence in the top of the third.
 
Ventarola's long ball was the only offense for the majority of the game before the Valiants got an insurance run across in the top of the seventh thanks to an RBI single to right off the bat of sophomore Ali Orduna (Orange, Calif./Villa Park). Hartenstein sent down the side in order in the home half to seal the sweep and the eight-game unbeaten start to conference play for Manhattanville.
 
The squad will return to action this Wednesday afternoon, April 10, for a non-conference doubleheader against William Paterson University. The Pioneers and Valiants are scheduled to begin game one at 3:00 p.m.