PURCHASE, N.Y. – For the first time since 2019, the Manhattanville College softball team will be playing in the NCAA Tournament as the top-seeded Valiants defeated No. 2 Farmingdale State in a pair of do-or-die Skyline Championship Finals games on Saturday afternoon. The Valiants earn their first Skyline Tournament title since 2007 after making runs to the finals each of the past two seasons before falling just short. This year, the team put the heartache of postseasons past to rest as they etched a new chapter into the highly decorated program history book.
After winning an extra-inning affair in the opener via walkoff, 3-2, the Valiants toppled the Rams 6-1 in the tournament's ninth and final contest. With the wins, Manhattanville will carry a 38-5 overall record into the NCAA Tournament, which will begin next week.
After pitching a pair of complete game victories in elimination games yesterday and today, highlighted by the championship-clincher, sophomore pitcher
Emily Mottoshiski (Craryville, N.Y./Taconic Hills) was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Mottoshiski allowed just one run across her 14 total innings the last two days, striking out seven in the pair of victories.
Skyline Conference Championship Game Eight Recap: Manhattanville 3, Farmingdale 2 (Eight Innings)
After their nail-biter a day ago that saw the Rams walk off the Valiants in the eighth inning, Manhattanville flipped the script with an eighth inning walk off victory of their own to force the winner-take-all contest later in the day.
Farmingdale went down in order to begin the extra stanza, giving the Valiants the opportunity to win with just a single run.
Sydni Brooks (Anaheim, Calif./Cypress) served as the catalyst, drawing a leadoff walk before stealing second during
Juliana Parkes' (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada/Belmont Secondary) at-bat. The rookie Parkes advanced her classmate up another base on a sacrifice bunt, putting the winning run at third with just one out.
Samantha Reyer (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) drew another walk to bring
Olivia Fasce (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) up to the plate. After Reyer stole second, Fasce dropped down a bunt perfectly between home and the pitcher's circle. Allie Stanya and Brooke Walker both made a beeline towards the ball, with Stanya fielding it coming out of the circle and colliding with Walker. The bump, coupled with Fasce booking it down the first base line, forced the senior to hurry her throw to first to attempt to get the force. The throw sailed off target, allowing Brooks to come home with the winning run and extend the Valiants' postseason run.
The entire game was a showcase of what to be expected in a championship bout as a pitcher's duel through the duration of the contest made scoring opportunities a rarity and the gravity of miscues being amplified.
Charli Shinstine (Encinitas, Calif./San Dieguito Academy) took to the circle for Manhattanville as she looked to rebound against the team that handed her the first loss of her season just a day prior. While her and Stanya matched each other with a pair of scoreless innings through the opening two frames, Farmingdale broke the shutout in the third. With one away, Jenna Giliberti beat out an infield single before advancing up to second with a steal. That brought up Priscila Rivera, who had handed the Valiants the loss yesterday with the walkoff double that scored Giliberti. She delivered an encore performance as she laced another two base hit to left to once again score Giliberti with a crucial run, taking a 1-0 lead.
The Valiants were able to pick up Shinstine in the fourth.
Samantha Walsh (Spring City, Pa./Owen J Roberts) led off with a single to right before Brooks laid down a sacrifice bunt. Walsh was not content to just stick with an advance to second as she was able to show off her speed by advancing all the way to third on the bunt. The play immediately paid off in the following at-bat as Walsh came home on Parkes' ground out to tie the game up 1-1.
The Valiants would go on to take their first lead against Farmingdale in the postseason in the sixth as the team loaded the bases on a pair of walks and a single with one away.
Melissa Lopez (Whittier, Calif./California) came out of the dugout to pinch hit, lacing a sharp grounder out towards short. Angeline Capuano could not field the ball cleanly, allowing everyone to advance, including Walsh with the go-ahead run. While a potential big inning still loomed, Stanya got out of the jam with an infield fly and a ground out to keep the Farmingdale deficit at one entering the final inning of regulation.
Christina Rodriguez was not ready to bow out quietly, as she greeted Shinstine to open up the seventh with a double. That brought up Stanya, who squared around to attempt a sacrifice bunt. While the ball was fielded cleanly by Brooks, her throw to Walsh covering the bag hit Stanya in the back. As the ball rolled around the infield, the pinch-running Alyssa Baez took the turn around third. The throw to
Amaya Esparza (Descanso, Calif./Granite Hills) behind the dish was on time, but the catcher was unable to secure the ball on the tag as the Rams tied up the game with more damage looming.
Stanya advanced to second in the chaos and scurried up to third on a wild pitch, serving as a late go-ahead run with still nobody out. Shinstine settled in and delivered some of her biggest pitches of the day, striking out Alyssa Cowen and Gilliberti before finally getting the better of Rivera with a ground out to keep the score even at 2-2.
In all, Shinstine threw eight innings, allowing just one earned run on four hits and a walk. She struck out five to collect her 21
st win of the season as her ERA now stands at 0.71.
Fasce and
Jayleen Torres (Bellflower, Calif./Downey) accounted for four of Manhattanville's six hits, both collecting a pair of base knocks in the win. Both of Torres' hits went for doubles, the only extra base hits by the Valiants.
Skyline Conference Championship Game Nine Recap: Manhattanville 6, Farmingdale 1
With both teams sitting with a loss in tournament play, the if-necessary Game Nine became a reality with the stakes as clear as they been all weekend: Win or go home.
Harker heard the message loud and clear as she drilled a home run to right center in the bottom of the first to put the Valiants up early, 1-0. It was Harker's fifth homer of the campaign and spotted Mottoshiski an early lead to work with in the circle after the sophomore navigated around a leadoff hit in a scoreless top half of the frame.
It was Giliberti once again that would represent the tying run for Farmingdale as the leadoff hitter reached with a one-out single in the third. Rivera hit a weak chopper that split the fielders to advance Giliberti to second before Capuano lined a grounder towards Reyer at short. The freshman had some difficulty fielding the ball cleanly as she stepped on second for the force out. Giliberti decided to test it as Reyer was focused on touching the bag and forced an off-target throw to tie the game up at 1-1.
After the offense had been looking for an explosive inning all tournament long, the Valiants finally found it in the fourth as they broke the game open with a four run, six hit frame. Harker, Esparza and Walsh hit back-to-back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning to take a 3-1 lead. Parkes then hit a single to right and advanced on the throw that unsuccessfully attempted to nab Walsh at third. Reyer then delivered the big hit, a two run single that cleared the bases and put Manhattanville comfortably ahead 5-1.
Parkes drove in one last run in the fifth on a ground out to plate Walsh, giving Mottoshiski plenty of room to work with as she continued to deliver in the biggest game of her young career. She allowed just one hit across the final four innings as she stymied the Rams in a complete game effort. Her final line was seven innings, allowing the lone run on five hits. She once again did not issue a walk as she struck out three, dropping her ERA on the year to 2.40.
Up Next
The Valiants will await the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Monday at 1 p.m. to find out their seeding and where they are headed for the Regional Round. The Selection Show will be broadcast at
https://www.ncaa.com/video/softball/2023-05-08/dii-softball-2023-selection-show.
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