MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The Manhattanville baseball team was scheduled to play a doubleheader against Johnson and Wales on Sunday morning, but due to rain early in the morning on Sunday, the Valiants returned to their regularly scheduled single game against the Wildcats and won by the score of 6-4.
Manhattanville senior starting pitcher Pat Yannucci (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Sewanhaka) worked in and out of bases loaded trouble in the first inning without allowing a run or hit in the top half of the first.
The Valiant offense in the bottom of the first started off with a pair of base knocks before junior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) hit a single to bring around freshman Kevin Brady (Bronx, N.Y./Fordham Prep). Junior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) walked to load the bases, followed by junior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) getting a base hit and a Bobby Guerra (Bronx, N.Y./Arlington) walk to bring in a run to make it 3-0. During the next at-bat Johnson & Wales starter Aldo Morales threw a passed ball that scored Bucci. Sophomore Elias Tsouristakis (New Rochelle, N.Y./Fordham Prep) hit a sacrifice fly to cap off the Valiant five run first inning.
Manhattanville manufactured a run in the third inning as LoVetere singled with one out and advanced to second on the throw. He then advanced to third on a wild pitch and came around to score on a Guerra single to make it 6-0.
The Wildcats chipped away and got one run off of Yannucci in the second but the senior settled down and didn't allow a run over his final two scheduled innings of work. Yannucci finished the game allowing the lone run on four hits while striking out seven Wildcats.
Junior Don Fisher (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) came on for Manhattanville to start the top of the 5th inning allowing a pair of singles and had an error committed behind him to load the bases. Fisher got Kory Ferule to ground into a double play that crossed the Wildcats second run and what turned out to be the only run in the inning to make the score 6-2.
Johnson & Wales scratched out one more run in the sixth inning off of freshman Joe Palmeri (Mastic, N.Y./Eastport/South Manor), and one more in the seventh against sophomore David Jones (Lanesboro, Mass./Mt. Greylock) as the Wildcats cut the lead to 6-4.
The Valiant bats went silent from the fourth inning onward collecting only one single from Bucci in the eighth inning for the offense. Morales pitched the full eight innings for the Wildcats allowing the six early runs on seven hits over the course of his outing while suffering the loss.
Yannucci picked up the win despite going four innings, but since it was determined prior to the game that he would pitch four innings he was eligible for the win. Jones picked up the three-inning save allowing a run on two hits over the course of his outing.
The Valiants finished their rain-shortened Spring Break trip with a 3-1 record and will play a newly scheduled game to make up for the lost games on Saturday because of the rainout. The Valiants will travel to nearby Division II Pace University to take on the Setters at 3:00 p.m.