PURCHASE, N.Y. – No. 20/21 Misericordia combined for 23 hits and 20 runs in 14 innings as the Cougars completed a three-game weekend sweep of the Manhattanville baseball team with a pair of victories, 9-2 and 11-0, in a Freedom Conference doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Manhattanville Field.

Manhattanville dropped the first game of the day by the score of 9-2. After a strong first inning in which the Valiants jumped in front 2-1 on a pair of RBI singles to left field by juniors Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) and Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury), the hitting for the Valiants went into a state of disarray and the Cougars took full advantage.

Misericordia scored one run in the first inning off a RBI single by junior Kenny Durling, which started his day and became a sign if things to come for the next two innings. In the second inning Misericordia poured on five more runs at the Valiants' expense. The Cougars took advantage of a Valiant error to score four unearned runs in the inning, helped by two-run hits from Durling, who went 2-4 in game one with three RBI, while junior Andrew Tressa went 2-5 on the day with two RBI and two runs scored.

In the third inning the Cougars added three more runs. The double steal tactic was the first method orchestrated by the Cougars to add a run as senior Nate Hamlin stole second and senior Chris Tuttle took off for home and made it safely. Following up the double steal, sophomore Ryan Cacchioli singled threw the left side to bring home Hamlin, and Cacchioli later scored on a Joe Tagliarini steal attempt.

For the game Misericordia had 13 hits, scoring all nine runs in the first three innings. Manhattanville opened the game with four hits and two runs in the first inning but struggled mightily after that, only getting one hit over the next six innings and leaving three men on base.

In game two, the Valiants sent freshman Michael Lyon (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) to the hill looking the salvage at least one win in the weekend series. Lyon set the Cougars down in order in the first inning and was matched by counterpart Matt Karabin in the bottom half of the first inning.

In the top of the second Misericordia manufactured a run with a walk, followed by an error and then a single into left field to bring in the first run of the game. Lyon avoided any further damage through the rest of the inning, and worked around a two out single to get out of the third inning as well.

Manhattanville got base runners on in both the second and third innings, but were unable to drive them home sending the game to the top of the fourth. In the top half of the fourth, the first two batters reached and were moved over to second and third on a sacrifice bunt. Joe Tagliarini drove them both home with a double down the leftfield line to move the lead to 3-0. The Cougars tacked on one more in the frame and went to the fifth inning up by four.

Misericordia blew the game open with a seven run fifth inning after the first seven batters of the inning all reached on Lyon, with the latter two reaching off of freshman reliever Joe Palmeri (Mastic, N.Y./Eastport/South Manor). Tagliardi had the biggest blow of the rally with a two RBI double to right centerfield. Palmeri got out of the inning by getting three of the last four batters to ground out.

In the bottom of the fifth, sophomore Elias Tsouristakis (New Rochelle, N.Y./Fordham Prep) hit a one out single but the Valiants couldn't get the big hit needed to bring around their first run of the game. Senior Pat Yannucci (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Sewanhaka) came on in the sixth and worked around a pair of hits and a hit batsman to avoid any further damage and keep Misericordia's league at 11-0.

Freshman Nick Euvino (Elmsford, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) led off the home sixth with a single but again Manhattanville was unable to bring him around. In the bottom of the seventh inning the Valiants went down in order and the Cougars came away with the three game sweep over their Freedom Conference rivals.

Picking up the win was Karabin who scattered four hits over five innings of work, followed by scoreless innings from both Dave Smith and Gabe Noyalis. Taking his first career loss was Lyon who allowed nine runs (five earned) on six hits over four innings. Palmeri allowed a pair of runs in his inning of work while Yannucci finished out the game for the crimson and white with two innings of work out of the bullpen.

Manhattanville (6-6, 2-4 Freedom) continues their stretch of tough opponents when they welcome in William Paterson on Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. with live stats of the game available on GoValiants.com. Misericordia (16-2, 5-0 Freedom) will look to extend their winning streak to seven when they host Delaware Valley on Sunday to finish off their three-game series that began in Fort Pierce, Florida two weeks ago.