PURCHASE, N.Y. – Freshman Michael Lyon (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) threw 102 pitches over seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits and left the game with an 11-3 lead. However the Manhattanville bullpen was unable to hold the lead as the Wilkes Colonels stormed back with 10 runs in the final two innings to escape Purchase with a 13-11 victory.

Senior Dan Fiorito (Yonkers, N.Y./Fordham Prep) finished the game going 4-for-6 with three runs scored, while freshman Bobby Guerra (Bronx, N.Y./Arlington) led the team with three RBI. Junior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) also went 3-of-5 at the plate while driving in a pair of runs as well.

In the first inning, Lyon worked around a two out double to retire the side and sent the game to the bottom half of the first inning where all nine Valiant batters came to plate for Manhattanville. Fiorito got the rally started with a one out double followed by classmate Chris Nardozzi (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) who drew a walk. Ferguson brought home Fiorito with an opposite field single, John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) singled to load the bases and bring up fellow junior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) who walked to force home Manhattanville's second run.

As the inning continued, Guerra hit a sacrifice fly into foul territory to bring home another run. The biggest hit of the inning came off the bat of sophomore Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond's) who poked a double down the right field line to bring around two more runners and give Manhattanville a 5-0 lead heading to the second inning.

In the bottom of the third inning, Manhattanville put up another five spot started off by LoVetere's one out double. The next batter was Guerra, who launched a two run homer to right centerfield for his first career home run to expand the lead to 7-0. The next three batters all reached with the third batter, freshman Kevin Brady (Bronx, N.Y./Fordham Prep), singling to the opposite field to bring around junior Matt Petrunti (East Granby, Conn./Loomis-Chaffee). Nardozzi had the final blow of the inning with a single up the middle to make the score 10-0.

Lyon was touched for a run in the top of the fourth inning with a pair of doubles, as he continued to roll along during his best career outing to this point. In the bottom of the fourth inning the Wilkes bullpen took over and settled the Valiant bats with the exception of a Ferguson base hit in the fifth inning to bring home Fiorito who had walked and stole second two batters earlier.

With the score at 11-1 in favor of the home team, Lyon reached the seventh inning and began to show fatigue as the first two batters reached via hits and were brought in on a pair of groundouts. Lyon got the last batter to fly out to center before turning the ball over to the bullpen in the eighth inning.

First out of the pen was junior Bashir Masani (Westbury, N.Y./W.T. Clarke) who allowed a leadoff homerun followed by a base hit that made it through the left side. Masani retired two of the next three batters, then faced off against Joe Dantas who doubled to center to bring in a pair of runs but was thrown out in a run down when he turned second looking for a triple.

Two batters reached for Manhattanville in the bottom of the eighth, but the bullpen of the Colonels continued to hold the Valiant bats off the board. After a change in the battery for Manhattanville, the Colonels rallied for six straight hits off of junior Edwin Aponte (Yonkers, N.Y./Yonkers) who was then pulled in favor of senior A.J. Marini (Fair Lawn, N.J./Paramus Catholic).

Marini got the first two batters he faced and had Wilkes down to their final strike when Dantas doubled to right centerfield to clear the bases and give Wilkes their first lead of the game at 12-11 in the top of the ninth inning. The next batter singled to move Dantas to third base who then scored on a passed ball before Marini could get the final batter and send the game to the bottom of the ninth down by two runs.

Brandon Carling came on to pitch looking for his third save of the season and finished the job for Wilkes by getting Petrunti to groundout, got pinch hitter Elias Tsouristakis (New Rochelle, N.Y./Fordham Prep) to strike out swinging and Fiorito to fly out to complete the comeback victory.

Collecting the win on the mound was reliever Marc Perry who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, while Durling notched his third save. Taking the loss for Manhattanville was Aponte who allowed six runs on six hits without recording an out to start the ninth inning.

Manhattanville (6-8, 2-5 Freedom) will look for a pair of victories to take the season series from Wilkes (9-12, 2-5 Freedom) when they travel to Wilkes-Barre, Pa. tomorrow afternoon with first pitch slated for 1:00 p.m. Due to the weather system making its way across the east coast tomorrow, the game may be pushed back to Sunday afternoon so be sure to stay tuned to GoValiants.com for all the latest weather updates and possible schedule changes.