LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Manhattanville University softball team began its 2025 season on Sunday, opening up a stretch of six games in California with a doubleheader split with Occidental College. Playing the Tigers for the first time in six years, the Valiants bounced back from a 2-1 pitching duel loss in the opener by taking the finale 6-4 thanks to a late inning comeback.
Game One Recap: Manhattanville 1, Occidental 2
Perhaps jetlagged from the cross country flight, the Valiant bats were limited to just two hits in the season-opening loss, falling to the Tigers 2-1.
Occidental scratched out a first inning run after Anna Kim reached on an error, stole second and scored on Evelyn Lorch's double.
The Tigers' lead held over the remainder of the contest, with Oxy adding an insurance run in the sixth as Lorch raced home from first on an Isabella Harding double.
The two runs were the only damage done versus
Emily Mottoshiski (Craryville, N.Y./Taconic Hills) in the circle as the Valiant senior did a masterful job working around traffic on the basepaths. Mottoshiski allowed the two runs (one earned) on eight hits and issued one walk and a hit by pitch while striking out one. She needed just 78 pitches to get through her six innings of work.
Mottoshiski's opposition was just as masterful as Zada Day-Adams caused fits for the Valiant batters in the opener.
Lianna Lara (Santa Clarita, Calif./Sierra Canyon School) laced a double down the left field line in the second for her first collegiate hit, but that would be the only noise Manhattanville's bats would make until the seventh inning. Manhattanville finally got to Day-Adams in their final at-bats, as
Samantha Reyer (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) hit a double to drive in
Isabella Tansey (San Diego, Calif./University City). Reyer was able to advance to third as the tying run, but Day-Adams got a popup and a flyout to retire the side and preserve the win.
Tansey,
Samantha Walsh (Spring City, Pa./Owen J Roberts) and
Emma Foster (Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos) each drew a walk in the loss.
Game Two Recap: Manhattanville 6, Occidental 4
The Valiants erased a 4-0 deficit over the final three innings to salvage the day and split the opening California doubleheader.
The Tigers got to Mottoshiski again for a run in the first before tacking on three more against Jor Wilkendorf over the next three innings. Only two of the runs were earned, and like Mottoshiski in the opener, Wilkendorf was able to navigate baserunners to limit Occidental's offense. The sophomore allowed five hits, walked three and hit a batter while striking out a pair.
Wilkendorf settled in after the fourth, allowing just one hit over her final three innings. The sophomore hurler locking on allowed the Valiant bats to wake up and mount a comeback.
After being held to just one hit over the first four innings,
Alexa Lazur (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) led off the fifth with a single. She would be replaced by
Cady Sickler (Kingston, N.Y./Kingston) on the basepaths following a fielder's choice, but Sickler would use her speed to get onto the board. The junior advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved up to third on a ground out, and scored on another wild pitch to make it a 4-1 ball game.
Feeding off the first run, the Valiants had their best inning of the day in the sixth.
Olivia Fasce (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) singled ahead of Walsh and
Ruby Wilson (Merrimack, N.H./Bishop Guertin) drawing walks to load the bases.
Sydni Brooks (Anaheim, Calif./Cypress) collected a painful RBI with a hit by pitch before Reyer drew a bases loaded walk to make it a one-run game. Lazur tied the game up with a single to center before Sickler delivered the big blow, a two-run double to chase home Reyer and Brooks and put Manhattanville up 6-4.
Working with a lead for the first time, Wilkendorf closed the game out by working around a leadoff runner in the sixth by retiring the next six batters in order to get Manhattanville into the win column.
Walsh and Lazur logged two hits apiece. The Valiants stole five bases in the win, with Walsh nabbing a pair of bags while Fasce, Brooks and Lazur each finished with one steal.
Up Next
The Valiants head off to Claremont on Tuesday for a doubleheader at Pomona-Pitzer. Game one is scheduled for a 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time start.
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