MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Manhattanville baseball team held with perennial powerhouse Eastern Connecticut State on Wednesday afternoon, but the Warriors opened up the score late and finished with an 8-2 victory.
 
The Valiants sent junior V.J. Collins (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Arlington) to the hill in the bottom of the first after the offense went down in the top of the first. Collins worked around a one-out single to retire the side in the bottom of the first.
 
Senior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) led off the top of the second with a leadoff single and was followed by junior Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) reaching on an infield single to put the first two batters on base. Junior Elias Tsouristakis (New Rochelle, N.Y./Fordham Prep) bunted the pair to second and third, while sophomore Nate Trashansky (Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) brought in the games first run by way of a groundout.
 
Eastern Connecticut answered back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take its first lead of the game on a groundout and on an error in the field by the Manhattanville defense.
 
The Valiants came back off of Warrior starter Mike Pendergast as again it was Ferguson and Arias to reach base to start off the inning. Tsouristakis singled to bring around Ferguson and knot the game up at a pair.
 
Collins continued to pitch well into the fifth inning, but yielded another two runs in the bottom of the fifth with the biggest blow coming on Mike Riemer's two-run double.
 
Manhattanville threatened again in the top of the seventh inning off of Pat Barnett and Sam Kosterich, as Tsouristakis reached as did Trashansky to get the frame started. Sophomore Kevin Brady (Bronx, N.Y./Fordham Prep) reached three batters later to load the bases with two outs, but Kosterich struck out the next batter to strand the bases loaded.
 
The Warriors opened up the lead off of Collins in the top of the seventh as they scored three runs. Jason Cosentino (Valhalla, N.Y./Westlake) closed the inning out and pitched into the bottom of the eighth while allowing just one hit. Sophomore Brian Lobel (Purchase, N.Y./Harrison) came on to close the game and yielded one final run in the inning to cap off the scoring at 8-2.
 
Earning the win was Barnett in relief to improve to 1-0 on the season. Taking his first loss of the year was Collins after allowing five earned runs over six-plus innings. Cosentino and Lobel closed out the game and allowed just one run over the final two innings for the Valiants.
 
Manhattanville (3-13, 1-5 Freedom) will resume conference play tomorrow afternoon at Manhattanville Field, when they welcome in the Delaware Valley Aggies for a 3:30 start time. Eastern Connecticut (10-4) will get right back to action tomorrow as well when they welcome in Roger Williams at 4 p.m.