ST DAVIDS, Pa. – The Manhattanville baseball team won its first Freedom Conference contest of the season on the road against the Eastern Eagles on Friday afternoon by the score of 4-3. Junior Alex Basso (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) had his strongest outing of the season over seven innings of work, allowing the three Eagle runs.
 
The Valiants collected base knocks in each of the first two innings as sophomores Kevin Brady (Bronx, N.Y./Fordham Prep) and Bobby Guerra (Bronx, N.Y./Arlington) collected hits respectively. In the bottom of the second, Eastern jumped on the board first after a two-run double from Mark Royer to put the home team up by a pair.
 
Basso and counterpart Lucas Bremmerman exchanged zeros through the fifth inning until the top of the sixth when the Valiants came up to bat.
 
In the top of the sixth, senior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) got things started with a one out walk followed by Guerra tripling to centerfield with the ball making its way all the way to the outfield fence to score the first Manhattanville run. As the inning continued, sophomore Nick Euvino (Bronx, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) singled to center to chase home Guerra and tie the game at two.
 
The Valiants were able to get through the bottom of the sixth unscathed as Basso had yet another solid inning to send the game to the top of the seventh frame.
 
In the inning, senior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) singled to chase Bremmerman from the game and bring on Barry Jost to the mound for the Eagles.  LoVetere then advanced to second a wild pitch, then to third on a groundout. Up next was senior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier), who singled to left to bring LoVetere in to score and give Manhattanville its first lead of the game.
 
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Eastern got the run right back as Tyler Orr launched a home run to centerfield over the 355 marker on the outfield wall to tie the game at three.
 
As quickly as Manhattanville gave the run away, the Valiants got right back on top in the top of the eighth inning as Euvino reached on a one out error to get the offense started. Junior Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) followed with a single to center as Euvino scampered to third with the go-ahead run. Freshman Kurt Hommen (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) grounded out, but in the process of the groundout Euvino crossed the plate as Manhattanville regained the lead at 4-3.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, senior Don Fisher (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) came on to pitch for the Valiants as Basso exited in line for the victory. Fisher walked the first batter he faced and got the next batter out via pop up. After another batter reached by way of a fielder's choice, Fisher was pulled in favor of sophomore Joe Palmeri (Mastic, N.Y./Eastport/South Manor), who retired the next two batters of the inning and got the Valiants out of trouble.
 
The Valiants got the leadoff batter on in the top of the ninth, but were unable to bring LoVetere around after he moved to second on a bunt and then to third on a passed ball. The next two batters went down, sending the game to the bottom of the ninth with the Valiants holding onto their one run lead.
 
With Palmeri still on the mound, Orr doubled to leftfield to but the tying run in scoring position. However, Palmeri bared down once again and got the next three batters in order to end the game and give Manhattanville its first conference win of the season.
 
Earning the victory was Basso, who improves to 2-1 on the season after pitching a solid seven innings and leaving the game with a 4-3 lead. Basso allowed the three runs on five hits while striking out four and walking one. Fisher retired one batter while also walking an Eagle, followed by Palmeri coming on to record the five-out save.
 
Taking the loss was Anthony Messina, who allowed the go-ahead run over his two innings of relief work. Bremmerman allowed the first three Valiant runs on eight hits over his six innings of work. Jost and Michael Suder combined to pitch a scoreless seventh inning.
 
Manhattanville (3-6, 1-0 Freedom) will continue its three-game weekend series against Eastern (4-4, 0-1 Freedom) tomorrow afternoon with the first pitch of the doubleheader slated for 12:30 p.m.