PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College softball team carried the momentum of their record-setting win streak into the opening game of the Skyline Conference Softball Championship Tournament double elimination bracket on Thursday afternoon as the top-seeded Valiants defeated No. 4 Mount Saint Mary by a final of 3-0. The Valiants notched a 31
st straight win in the process and will remain in the winners half of the bracket to begin tomorrow's action.
Charli Shinstine (Encinitas, Calif./San Dieguito Academy) occupied the circle for Manhattanville as the senior continued her dominance to begin the postseason. Shinstine allowed just three hits and one walk in the complete game shutout effort, striking out 13 to improve to 20-0 overall on the year. Her 10
th punchout of the game in the fifth inning pushed her career total to 535, putting her alone at the top of the program record book for career strikeouts. She surpasses Valiant great Maggie Thomas, who racked up 534 punchouts from 2004 to 2007 while at Manhattanville.
No Knight reached second base against Shinstine as she was quick to work around any of the limited traffic that reached base against her. After issuing a leadoff walk to open up the game in the first, the Valiant ace got a pop up and a pair of strikeouts to strand the runner at first. From there, three harmless singles would be all that went against Shinstine for the rest of the day as her ERA falls to a miniscule 0.62 on the year.
While runs came at a premium on the day, the Valiants were able to claw out a run in the first.
Olivia Fasce (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) drew a one out walk to bring up
Sarah Harker (Irvine, Calif./Irvine). The senior drove the ball to the deepest part of center field where she usually patrols, but Olivia Ferara robbed her of a two-run shot by making an impressive snag on the warning track.
Amaya Esparza (Descanso, Calif./Granite Hills) then stepped in and smacked a single to right, allowing Fasce to advance up to third. The sophomore then sprinted hom on a wild pitch to plate the opening run.
It would turn out that would be all Shinstine would need to secure the win, but the Valiants added a pair of insurance runs in the fourth. After Harker drew a leadoff walk, the Manhattanville centerfielder raced home from first on an Esparza double. Esparza then advanced to third on
Samantha Walsh's (Spring City, Pa./Owen J Roberts) single and would come home on a
Juliana Parkes (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada/Belmont Secondary) sacrifice fly to center to extend the lead up to 3-0.
Mount Saint Mary managed just one baserunner across the final three innings after the Manhattanville lead climbed to three runs as Samantha Bendig hit a leadoff single. A fielder's choice replaced Bendig with Grace MacDonald before Shinstine struck out Sophia Gannon and Sophia Reed to close out the contest.
The Valiants advance to Game Five of the Skyline Conference Championship Tournament bracket where they will take on No. 2 Farmingdale State. The Rams defeated third-seeded Saint Joseph's Brooklyn 2-1 in the second game on Thursday. First pitch between Manhattanville and Farmingdale is slated for 10 a.m. Saint Joseph's Brooklyn and Mount Saint Mary will then play in the elimination game at 12:30 p.m., with the winner of that game wrapping up the day by taking on the loser of Manhattanville-Farmingdale at 3 p.m.
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