PURCHASE, N.Y. – The battle for bragging rights of Anderson Hill Road went to Purchase College on Thursday afternoon as the Panthers knocked off the Valiants by the score of 4-3. The Valiants had a 3-2 lead heading to the top of the eighth inning but surrendered two runs as Purchase rallied to complete the victory.
Manhattanville jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning as senior Dan Fiorito (Yonkers, N.Y./Fordham Prep) got the offense started with a one out single and stole second shortly after. Classmate Chris Nardozzi (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) singled up the middle and advanced Fiorito to third while both were brought around on a double to deep left field off the bat of junior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) that made it two-thirds the way up the wall.
The Panthers scratched a run across in both the top of the second and top of the third off of Valiant starter David Jones (Lanesboro, Mass./Mt. Greylock) who settled down and pitched the next two inning scoreless before being pulled to start the sixth inning after Manhattanville regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a Ferguson single to bring around Fiorito.
Senior reliever A.J. Marini (Fair Lawn, N.J./Paramus Catholic) came on to pitch next for Manhattanville and pitched through the first two innings fairly easily allowing just two hits over the sixth and seventh innings. In the eighth, Purchase was able to string a few base knocks together after Marini retired the first two batters. With two on and two out Purchase first baseman Phil Georges brought home a pair on a base hit to left field to give Purchase their only lead of the day at 4-3.
On the other side of the ball, the Valiant bats went quiet over the final three innings as they were only able to collect one hit off of each of the three relievers that followed Purchase starter Vincent McCarty. Manhattanville's best chance came in the bottom of the ninth when sophomore Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond's) hit a hard ground ball down the left field line for a one out double. Arias advanced to third on a groundout with Fiorito coming up, unfortunately for the Valiants their senior leader was unable to bring home Arias as the Valiants fell by the score of 4-3.
On the mound Marini took his first loss of the season after allowing two runs on five hits over four innings of relief. Jones pitched the first five innings while also allowing two runs on four hits but also walked six batters in the process. Collecting the win was reliever Miller Lulow who pitched a scoreless top of the seventh after McCarty went the first six innings allowing the three Valiant runs.
Manhattanville (4-2) will look to get back in the win column when they open the conference portion of their schedule tomorrow afternoon against King's (Pa.) at 3:30 p.m. There is a 40% chance of thunderstorms in the Purchase area tomorrow so be tuned into GoValiants.com for all the latest updates. Purchase (7-6) will look for their fourth win in a row when they host the Cortland Red Dragons in a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon beginning at 12:00 p.m.