PURCHASE, N.Y. – Senior shortstop Dan Fiorito (Yonkers, N.Y./Fordham Prep) hit two homeruns in Tuesday afternoon's contest against William Paterson, but the Pioneers came out on top by a score of 15-12 in an eight inning game at Manhattanville Field in Purchase, N.Y.
The Valiants sent junior Don Fisher (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) to the bump for his first start of the 2012 campaign, and Fisher struggled with little help from the defense behind him. After walking the first batter of the game, the next two batters reached via errors to bring home the first run of the game. The next batter singled through the right side to score the second run of the game before a groundout brought around the third run.
In the bottom half of the first inning, Fiorito came up for his first at-bat with no one on and one out and sent an opposite field homerun sailing over the right field wall to trim the lead to 3-1 heading to the second inning.
After a few defensive changes to sure up the defense in the top of the second, Fisher struck out the first batter of the inning, designated hitter Adam Derner had the big blow of the inning with a two RBI double down the right field line to make the score 5-1. The Pioneers tacked on three more runs and took an 8-1 lead to the bottom of the second.
Junior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) led off the bottom of the frame with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch before being brought home by classmate Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) on a sacrifice fly as the Valiants attempted to chip away at their seven run deficit.
As Manhattanville began to chip, William Paterson replied with a chop, adding another four runs in the top of the third inning including a long two-run home run off the bat of Derner who ended up on the day going 4-for-6 with five RBI.
However the Valiants continued to fight back with solid relief pitching from sophomores David Jones (Lanesboro, Mass./Mt. Greylock) and Matt Mullin (New York, N.Y./St. John's Prep) who kept the Pioneer bats at bay through the next three innings to allow their offense to cut back into the lead.
In the bottom of the third Manhattanville got two runs across the plate as junior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) and LoVetere picked up one RBI each. In the fourth the Valiants picked up three more runs as junior Raul Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y./DeWitt Clinton) and freshman Nick Euvino (Elmsford, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) reached base to start off the inning, Rodriguez eventually scored on a wild pitch while later in the inning Bucci and LoVetere each picked up one more RBI each to make the score 12-7.
The offense continued to score in the fifth inning when Euvino reached on a two out walk to start the next rally, followed by a Fiorito single to move Euvino to third. Senior Chris Nardozzi (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) chased home Euvino as Manhattanville scored a run in each of the first five innings.
Both sides went scoreless in the sixth as Mullin continued his impressive outing that was matched by the bullpen of William Paterson. In the seventh inning, the Pioneers touched up Mullin for three runs in his third inning of work after he had retired the first two batters with ease.
Manhattanville threatened in the seventh inning but were unable to bring home any runs, which wasn't the case in the bottom of the eighth. In what turned out to be the last inning of the game, freshman T.J. Hewett (Wethersfield, Conn./Wethersfield) worked out a leadoff walk followed by a Matt Petrunti (East Granby, Conn./Loomis-Chaffee) base knock up the middle to put the first two men on. The next two batters were retired to bring up Fiorito with two on and two out, on a 1-1 pitch Fiorito launched his second home run of the game over the left field wall to inch the Valiants closer at 15-11.
As the inning continued, sophomore Ryan Blinderman (Richmond Hill, Ontario/Fairfield Warde (Conn.)) who pinch ran for Nardozzi in the previous inning kept the rally going with his first hit of the season going through the right side. Blinderman moved up to second on a wild pitch, and was brought around as Ferguson hit an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error as the first baseman attempted to throw out Blinderman who was making his way to the plate. However the next batter popped up to retire the side.
The umpires then decided to cancel the ninth inning due to darkness at Manhattanville Field, giving the Pioneers a 15-12 victory over the Valiants.
Picking up the win in relief was Tim O'Shea (3-0) who pitched the scoreless sixth and seventh innings for the Pioneers. Taking the hard luck loss was Mullin (0-2) who allowed three runs over his four innings of relief pitching. Jones' pitching line saw him throw a scoreless 1 1/3 innings while allowing just one hit and a walk while striking out one.
Manhattanville (6-7) will return to the field tomorrow afternoon when they play host to the Eastern Connecticut State Warriors, with first pitch slated for 4:00 p.m. Due to potential thundershowers in the Purchase area, the game may be cancelled so stay tuned to GoValiants.com for all the latest game information. William Paterson (12-4) returns home to host John Jay tomorrow afternoon beginning at 3:30 p.m.