MADISON, N.J. – The Manhattanville baseball team dropped a pair of Freedom Conference contests to the FDU-Florham Devils on Saturday afternoon at FDU Field in Madison, N.J. In game one the Valiants fell 3-2 and followed that up with a 3-1 loss in the second game of the seven inning doubleheader.
In game one the Valiants got off to a quick start in hopes of keeping the momentum continuing from yesterday's walk-off win over the Devils. Manhattanville did just that as senior Dan Fiorito (Yonkers, N.Y./Fordham Prep) hit a one out double and stole third base with classmate Chris Nardozzi (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) at the plate. Nardozzi followed up with an RBI groundout to put Manhattanville up 1-0.
In the bottom of the first Manhattanville sent sophomore Alex Basso (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) who pitched well allowing just one run over his first six innings of work. Basso struck out three and worked around a two on and one out situation in the bottom of the third. The only run he allowed was a Ryan Fandel home run in the bottom of the fourth to tie up the game at one.
The score remained tied until the top of the seventh when junior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) got the rally started with a leadoff single and was moved to third on a bunt by classmate Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury). Two batters later sophomore Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond's) doubled to the right centerfield gap to score Bucci and put Manhattanville up 2-1.
In the bottom of the seventh Basso went back to the hill looking to close out the game, and struck out his fourth batter of the game to set the first batter down. John Pieper pinch hit and doubled followed by a base hit to put runners at the corners, Nick Marcucci singled to right center to tie the game. Basso got the next batter to fly out looking to get through the seventh and send the game to extra innings. The next batter was Brandan Adams who singled to score the game-winning run as FDU-Florham had returned the favor from yesterday with a walk-off win of their own.
Earning the win was Glenn Cox (2-3) who completed seven innings while allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out six. The losing pitcher was Basso (2-2) who allowed three runs on 10 Devil hits while striking out the four batters.
Game two saw another pitchers dual with senior Pat Yannucci (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Sewanhaka) squaring off against Robbie Drexel of FDU-Florham as both pitchers worked around two on and two out situations in the first inning. The duo also allowed single runs in the second inning, in the top half of the second LoVetere started off a string of three hits and was brought in two batters later by Arias. The Devil run came from another Fandel home run to start off the bottom of the second.
In the third inning, Drexel retired the Valiants while just allowing a one out walk to junior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier). In the bottom of the third Yannucci was unable to match Drexel's performance when he allowed the first batter to reach on a single and move up to second on a wild pitch, two of the next three batters hit doubles to make the score 3-1 in favor of the home team.
Offensively the Valiants struggled to find any string of hits against Drexel who allowed a LoVetere single in the fourth and a Bucci single in the bottom of the sixth before setting down the side 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh to finish off the game and clinch the Saturday sweep over Manhattanville.
Earning the complete game win was Drexel (3-0) who allowed the lone run over seven innings of work on seven hits while striking out six Valiant batters. Suffering the loss was Yannucci (2-1) who allowed the three FDU-Florham runs in 5 1/3 innings before freshman Joe Palmeri (Mastic, N.Y./Eastport/South Manor) came on to finish off the final two batters in the bottom of the sixth.
Manhattanville (9-12, 5-7 Freedom) return to mid-week non-conference action this Tuesday when they host the Staten Island Dolphins on Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Live stats of the game will be available on GoValiants.com. FDU-Florham (11-12, 7-4 Freedom) will also play a non-conference game on Tuesday afternoon when they host New Jersey City at 3:30 p.m.