PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville baseball team suffered another difficult loss to the Eastern Eagles on Tuesday afternoon by the score of 15-4.
The game started off well for the Valiants as senior Don Fisher (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) walked around a leadoff walk in the top of the first to retire the next three batters.
The offense did well in the first inning as well off of Eastern's starter Ryan Chenault as freshman Jordanis Nunez (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) led off with a walk then moved to second on a wild pitch then stole third base. Sophomore Kevin Brady (Bronx, N.Y./Fordham Prep) and senior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) walked to fill the bases but Chenault got the next two batters while yielding one run.
Freshman Chris Lattarulo (Armonk, N.Y./Byram Hills) singled up the middle to bring around Brady and put the home team ahead by a 2-0 score. Fisher retired the side in the top of the second, while the Valiant offense went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the frame.
Eastern tied the game in the top of the third with a pair of two out runs, then tacked on five runs in the top of the fifth that chased Fisher from the game. Sophomore Zack Zareva (Warren, N.J./Watchung Hills Regional) allowed two inherited runners to score with the first batter he faced, but got the next batter on two pitches.
Junior Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) got the offense going again in the bottom half of the inning by reaching on an infield hit and also shuffled up to second on a throwing error by the shortstop. Arias picked up a stolen base then scored on a wild pitch, all with freshman Kurt Hommen (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) batting. Hommen then worked out a walk and moved to third on a pair of groundouts before scoring on a LoVetere double.
The Eagles put up another five run inning in the top of the sixth as the defense struggled to help fuel another crooked inning in favor of Eastern.
Ryan Blinderman (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Warde) relieved freshman Julian Ponce (Port Chester, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac), and the junior impressed by five of the six batters he faced for 1 2/3 innings worth of work. Freshman Chris Kane (Thornwood, N.Y./Westlake) made his collegiate debut in the top of the ninth and allowed the first three runners to reach before giving way for graduate student Donny Pitasi (Mount Kisco, N.Y./Fox Lane), who retired his three outs via strikeout.
Lattarulo reached on a one out walk in the bottom of the ninth with the Valiants down by 11, but the next two batters struck out to end the game to give reliever Austin Little the three-inning save.
Manhattanville (3-12, 1-5 Freedom) will be back in action against perennial powerhouse Eastern Connecticut tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. Eastern (6-7, 2-4 Freedom) will be back in action in league play on Thursday against DeSales at 3:30 p.m.