READING, Pa. – After sweeping a pair of Freedom Conference games from Wilkes on Saturday afternoon, the Manhattanville baseball team travelled to the other half of the MAC Conference and took on the Alvernia Crusaders, falling by a 9-0 score on Sunday afternoon.
 
Junior V.J. Collins (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Arlington) got the call to start for the Valiants and worked around a one out single and a stolen base to send the game to the second inning.

In the top of the frame, sophomore Bobby Guerra (Bronx, N.Y./Arlington) collected Manhattanville's first hit of the afternoon and moved up to second as junior Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) singled to put two runners on with one down. Crusader starter James Colgan was able to get out of the jam with a fly out and a ground out.
 
The first run of the game was scored in the bottom of the second as a single, sacrifice bunt and an error put two of the first three on. The Valiants' second error of the inning allowed Chris Gehris to score the game's opening run.
 
Alvernia tacked on two more runs in the third inning as the errors continued to occur in the field for Manhattanville as the home team took a three-run lead. The inning finally came to an end as senior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) threw out Gehris, who was trying to steal second.
 
Manhattanville got one runner on in the third, fourth and fifth innings but were unable to string together any hits as the Crusaders added to their lead in the bottom half of the innings. In the top of the sixth LoVetere and senior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) reached base, but a double play ended the threat.
 
Senior Don Fisher (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) came on in the top of the sixth with Manhattanville trailing by six. Fisher allowed a lead off walk, but got managed to hang up a zero with a pair of fly outs and a strikeout.
 
In the top of the seventh Arias led off and reached on an error by his opposite number at third base. Senior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) walked which chased Colgan from the game and brought on reliever Cody Smith. Senior Raul Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y./DeWitt Clinton) came on to pinch hit on the third strike the catcher dropped the ball, which allowed Arias and Bucci to advance. The next batter up was freshman Kurt Hommen (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood), who grounded out which turned into a double play as Arias was thrown out at the plate.
 
Manhattanville was unable to get the offense going in the eighth inning after Alvernia put two more runs on the scoreboard to take an 8-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh. Freshman Jason Cosentino (Valhalla, N.Y./Westlake) came on out of the bullpen and walked the leadoff batter then allowed a single. Three batters later a groundout brought home the ninth run of the game to cap off the scoring at nine for Alvernia.
 
On the hill for the Valiants, Collins took the loss to fall to 0-2 on the year after going five innings and allowing four earned runs on seven hits. Fisher allowed a pair of runs on three hits over his two innings of work, while Cosentino pitched the eighth and allowed one run on a hit and a pair of walks.
 
Manhattanville (8-17, 5-7 Freedom) will be back on the diamond on Tuesday evening at 5 p.m. on the road against the Staten Island Dolphins. Alvernia (19-8, 9-3 Commonwealth) will travel to Muhlenberg in non-conference action on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.