WILKES-BARRE, PA. – The Manhattanville College softball team found itself in familiar territory Saturday afternoon, May 4, after its 6-3 defeat of Misericordia University on the campus of Wilkes University. The Valiants, having not lost at any point in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom Softball Championship, needed just one win Saturday to be crowned champions for a fourth straight season – as well as a fourth straight automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Softball Championship – and they did just that.
 
Top-seeded Manhattanville (40-2) reached the 40-win plateau for just the second time in program history – the Valiants were 41-5 in 2016 when they reached the NCAA Super Regionals – following its victory over the No. 2 Cougars (30-12). The Valiants entered the weekend ranked two spots behind Misericordia in the NCAA Division III East Region rankings – Manhattanville is No. 7 and Misericordia is No. 5 – but proceeded to take two from the Cougars en route to the automatic NCAA berth next weekend.
 
Graduate student Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) stepped in the circle Saturday for the Valiants and proceeded to go 6.2 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits to lead Manhattanville to victory. Combined with her complete-game no-earned-run victory over DeSales University yesterday, Friday, May 3, Feeney was selected as the MAC Freedom Tournament Most Valuable Player for the third time in her career. Sophomore Jasmine Feliciano (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) entered the game with two outs in the top of the seventh and got the Cougars to fly out for her third save of the season.
 
Manhattanville struck first with a two-out RBI single up the middle from senior Evonne Torres (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Pioneer) that scored sophomore Isela Casillas (Chula Vista, Calif./Eastlake) from third. The Valiants then put up the rest of their offense for the day in the home half of the third.
 
Rookie Giovanna Liggett (Fountain Valley, Calif./Edison) led off with a hit-by-pitch and junior Steph Muller (Port Jervis, N.Y./Port Jervis) entered the game as a pinch runner. With one out, Torres hit a double down the rightfield line to put two runners in scoring position. Senior Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) immediately capitalized by taking the first pitch and smacking a two-run double to leftfield. Sophomore Jordyn Boyd (Woodinville, Wash./Woodinville) then plated Hartenstein the following at-bat with a one-run single to right-centerfield. To close it out, with two outs and the bases loaded, Casillas collected a two-run single of her own to plate graduate student Alexis Ventarola (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester), as well as Boyd.
 
Things remained quiet until Misericordia made some noise to get competitive in the top of the seventh as the Valiants were trying to close out the victory. With two outs and the bases loaded, the Cougars scored three times. Fortunately, Feliciano was able to enter the contest to close it out and send Manhattanville to its fourth straight postseason.
 
The Valiants now await their travel destination for next weekend's NCAA Division III Softball Regional. The official NCAA selection show will air on NCAA.com Monday afternoon, May 6, at 1:00 p.m.