SWOYERSVILLE, Pa. – Despite a three run rally in the top of the seventh inning, the Manhattanville baseball team fell on the road to No. 20/21 Misericordia Cougars on Friday afternoon by the score of 8-6 as they continued their season in Freedom Conference play.
Senior Chris Nardozzi (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) and junior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) both went 3-for-5 on the afternoon while driving in two runs apiece. Nardozzi also scored three runs during the game.
Manhattanville jumped on the board quickly in the top of the first inning as Nardozzi hit a two out homerun to centerfield to give the Valiants the early 1-0 lead. In the bottom half of the first, senior A.J. Marini (Fair Lawn, N.J./Paramus Catholic) worked around a two out single and finished the Cougars off to send it to the second.
LoVetere led off the second frame with an infield single but the Valiant offense was unable to bring him around. Then in the bottom of the inning, Marini got the first two batters but allowed a solo homerun to Jeff Slanovec to tie the game at one.
The Valiant offense responded well by rallying in the top of the third inning as senior Dan Fiorito (Yonkers, N.Y./Fordham Prep) started things off with a one out double, and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Nardozzi got his second big hit of the afternoon doubling down the leftfield line to chase home his classmate and put Manhattanville back on top at 2-1. Junior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) doubled around Nardozzi to make it 3-1 sending it to the bottom of the third.
Both pitchers settled down for their next half-innings, but the Misericordia bats awoke in the home half of the fourth as the first three batters reached to load the bases. Marini got the next batter out on a sacrifice fly to bring home one but the next batter reached on a fielding error, but the Valiants were able to make an out on the play, to put runners on second and third with two down. The next batter singled to left to bring home the pair and give Misericordia their first lead of the day at 4-3.
The Cougar offense added onto their lead with by manufacturing the first run of the inning with a single, error and sac fly. After Marini got the next batter for the second out he allowed back-to-back home runs as the Cougars opened a 7-3 lead.
Both teams went down without much of a fight in the sixth inning, but in the top of the seventh the Valiants staged a two run rally. Nardozzi hit a one out single followed by a Ferguson base knock to push Nardozzi to second. Junior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) hit a double to centerfield to bring around Nardozzi and cut into the lead. After a pitching change, LoVetere hit a two RBI single to right centerfield to bring home Ferguson and Bucci but the three-run rally came to an end with the next two batters.
In the bottom of the inning, Misericordia used the bunt to bring around a runner and also bring him in on a squeeze play to make it a two run game at 8-6. The Valiants were able to muster one hit over the eighth and ninth as they fell to their Freedom Conference rivals headed into the weekend.
Earning the win was Patrick Clark (4-0) who went 6 1/3 innings allowing six runs on 10 hits. Corey Lee pitched the final 2 2/3 innings to finish off the game for the Cougars. Taking the loss was Marini (0-2) who allowed seven runs on eight hits over his five innings of work. David Jones (Lanesboro, Mass./Mt. Greylock) came on next and allowed a run on one hit in just under two innings of work while senior Pat Yannucci (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Sewanhaka) wrapped up the game for the Valiants pitching a hitless 1 1/3 inning.
Manhattanville (9-6, 2-2 Freedom) will return to action against Misericordia (15-2, 3-0 Freedom) tomorrow afternoon at Manhattanville Field in Purchase, N.Y. with first pitch slated for 1:00 p.m., with a chance of rain in the area the game may be pushed to an earlier time in the day so stay tuned to GoValiants.com for all the weather updates.