BRONX, N.Y. – Playing in their home state for the first time all season, the Manhattanville College baseball team defeated Coast Guard in a Sunday afternoon game at Fordham University, 6-5. With the win, the Valiants improve to 4-2 overall, while the Bears fall to 1-5.
Serving as the home team at Houlihan Park, the Valiants would break open a scoreless game in the fourth inning.
Brian Bornkamp (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) opened up the inning with a leadoff walk before back-to-back RBI doubles off the bats of
Joshua Gillison (Buchanan, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson) and
Tyler Mandel (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) plated the first two runs of the day. Mandel would advance to third with one away, but he would be stranded there as the Bears got the final two outs without any further damage.
Ray White (Mohegan Lake, N.Y./Lakeland) got the start on the mound, pitching well in his second start of the year. The sophomore tossed five scoreless innings and allowed four hits while striking out three.
While White stymied the Coast Guard bats, the Bears jumped at the sight of a new arm on the mound.
Alby Ciuffetelli (Mahopac, N.Y./Yorktown) would be greeted rudely as he took over for White in the sixth. After giving up back-to-back singles, the graduate pitcher was taken deep by Blake Carroll, a three-run blast that put the Bears up 3-2.
Ciuffetelli would retire the next three in order to keep it a one run game as the Valiants would immediately respond in the bottom half. Gillison was hit by a pitch in the first at bat of the frame before being replaced by
Frank Delgado (West Nyack, N.Y./Clarkstown South) as a pinch runner. Delgado immediately showed off his speed, stealing second before racing home with the tying run on a
Michael Musantry (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) double. An error allowed Musantry to advance to third while
Chris Goohs (Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown H.S. East) reached first. The Valiants would pull a delayed double steal as Goohs drew a throw to second and got in a rundown, allowing Musantry to come home with the go ahead run.
Manhattanville added a pair of runs to their lead in the seventh. Delgado drew a bases loaded walk to plated
Michael Matica (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville), while
Joseph McDonald (Coram, N.Y./Longwood) scored on a Mandel double play to put the Valiants ahead 6-3.
As it would turn out, the Valiants would need all of those runs.
Chris Antonelli (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) came in for relief of Ciufetelli in the seventh and pitched a pair of strong innings, allowing a leadoff triple in the eighth but stranding the runner there with a strikeout and a pair of groundouts. The junior came out for the ninth to attempt a three inning save, but after recording the first out via strikeout, a pair of errors and hit by pitch resulted in the bases loaded for the Bears. Antonelli gave way to
Tommy Iazzetta (Thornwood, N.Y./Westlake), who would allow a pair of the inherited runners to score on a bases loaded walk and a sacrifice fly. With the Valiant lead down to a single run and Bears on first and second, Iazzetta got Kael Godshalk to ground one out to third, where Goohs fielded it and stepped on the bag to preserve the win.
Up Next
The Valiants are scheduled to play their first games of the season on GoValiants.com Field on Saturday when Manhattanville hosts Neumann for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
VALIANTS on SOCIAL MEDIA For the latest on Manhattanville Athletics, follow the Valiants via social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. #WeAreValiant #GoValiants
