OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Squaring off the first time since their 2024 Skyline Conference Championship finals meeting, the Manhattanville University softball team continued its winning ways with a doubleheader sweep at Old Westbury on Tuesday. The Valiant winning streak climbs to 12 straight victories as Manhattanville improves to 20-6 overall and 10-0 in Skyline Conference action.
Game One Recap: Manhattanville 11, Old Westbury 4
While a sixth-straight run-rule victory eluded the Valiants in the opener, the Manhattanville bats still did plenty of damage to open up the day on Long Island with 11 runs on 12 hits.
Emily Mottoshiski (Craryville, N.Y./Taconic Hills) helped herself out while throwing a complete game with a pair of home runs, her first two deep flies of the year. The senior finished with five RBI, single-handedly outscoring the Panthers with two swings of the bat.
While Mottoshiski raked at the plate, she was touched up on the rubber for the most runs she surrendered in a game in nearly a month as the Panthers tagged the Valiant starter for four runs (three earned) across seven innings. The Craryville native was able to navigate around the five hits by striking out four and not allowing a walk. While her ERA makes a slight jump up to 1.66 with the outing, she improves to 12-3 overall, already tying her win total from a season ago.
The Valiants hung a crooked number in the first inning with
Isabella Tansey (San Diego, Calif./University City) swiping home on a double steal. Mottoshiski capped off the frame with her first blast of the day, a three-run homer that also plated
Samantha Walsh (Spring City, Pa./Owen J Roberts) and
Rachel Coleman (Lake Forest, Calif./Mission Viejo) to put Manhattanville up 4-0 before the Panthers could step up to the plate.
Old Westbury picked up an unearned run in the bottom half before the Valiant offense went back to work in the third. After Walsh led off with a single, Coleman chased her home with a one-out double. That brought up Mottoshiski who replicated her first inning swing, depositing the ball over the left field wall for her second homer of the game to extend the Valiant lead up to 7-1.
An RBI single by Walsh and RBI double off the bat of
Angelina Cruz (Oceanside, Calif./Rancho Buena Vista) in the fourth had Manhattanville on the brink of another run-rule win, carrying a 9-1 lead into the fifth. Old Westbury was able to prolong the game with their best inning of the day, plating three runs on four hits to cut the Valiant lead to five runs.
Manhattanville responded with two in the sixth as Coleman brought home
Olivia Fasce (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) and Tansey with a two-out single to go ahead 11-4. Mottoshiski settled back in after the fifth, retiring the final seven batters she faced in order to close out the win.
Walsh went 3-for-4 in the opener, as both her and Tansey scored three times. Tansey successful stole two bases, while Walsh,
Alexa Lazur (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) and
Emma Foster (Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos) each swiped a bag.
Game Two Recap: Manhattanville 8, Old Westbury 0 (Five Innings)
A pitching duel through four frames, the Valiants did all their damage in the fifth, plating eight runs on six hits and a pair of Panther errors to blow the doors open as Manhattanville notched a sixth-straight doubleheader sweep.
Scoreless through four innings, neither offense could muster much against the opposing arm. After being named an NFCA Top Performer from last week earlier in the day,
Jori Wilkendorf (Livermore, Calif./Livermore) picked up right where she left off after two shutouts the week prior. The sophomore retired the first 11 Panthers she faced before allowing her first hit in the fourth. While the two-out double put the first runner in scoring position for either team, Wilkendorf kept the go-ahead run stranded with an inning-ended ground out to send the game to the fifth still scoreless.
After being held to just two hits over the first four innings, the Manhattanville offense came back to life in the fifth. After back-to-back one out singles by Lazur and
Emma Foster (Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos) gave the Valiants their first runner in scoring position, Tansey cashed in with an RBI double that opened the floodgates. Fasce followed with a bases-clearing triple before Walsh smacked a two-run homer, her fifth of the season to put the Valiants up 5-0.
The inning continued as Cruz reached on an error and was replaced by
Josie O'Leary (Pawling, N.Y./Pawling) as a pinch runner. O'Leary stole second before Mottoshiski walked to bring
Samantha Reyer (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) up with a pair on. After being held hitless across both games up to that point, Reyer dropped a ball into left for a double. The ball was misplayed and booted around by the fielder, allowing Reyer to race all that way home with a little league home run, clearing the bases with an 8-0 lead.
With the game script completely flipped in the span of a half inning, Wilkendorf returned to the circle and set down the side in order in the fifth to pick up her sixth win of the year. The sophomore's ERA drops to 2.23 as she has not allowed a run in 19 consecutive innings.
Fasce was the lone Valiant to finish Game Two with multiple hits, going 2-for-3.
Up Next
Manhattanville is back home tomorrow afternoon to take on Stevens for a 3 p.m. doubleheader.
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