BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Manhattanville baseball team fell on the road to the Baruch Bearcats on Thursday afternoon by the score of 8-6 on the campus of Kingsborough Community College.
 
The Valiants went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first inning and sent junior Joe Pareres (Bronxville, N.Y./Fordham Prep) to the mound for the bottom of the inning. Pareres walked the opening batter for the Bearcats, who then stole second and came around on a base hit to put Baruch up 1-0 in the first.
 
Pareres settled down over the next inning, as Baruch starter Chris Maisonet continued to set the Valiant offense down through the top of the third. In the bottom of the inning, two of the first three batters reached and with Angel Tejada batting the Bearcats executed a steal of home, followed by a single from Tejada to put the home team up by three.
 
The next half-inning, senior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) reached on an error, followed by freshman Jordanis Nunez (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) singling and senior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) getting on with a base hit to load the bases. With freshman Chris Lattarulo (Armonk, N.Y./Byram Hills) batting Maisonet was called for a balk and forced home LoVetere with the first Valiant run. Lattarulo walked, but was erased on the next play as the Valiants threat ended on a double play.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, Baruch loaded the bases as three of the first four-reached base. Philip Loprete hit the ball to third base that was booted and allowed an unearned run to cross the plate as Baruch added a run and took a 4-1 lead.
 
The Bearcats added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning off of junior V.J. Collins (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Arlington), who had pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth after coming on to replace Pareres.
 
With the Valiants down by six, the team's bats finally awoke in the top of the seventh inning. Junior Elias Tsouristakis (New Rochelle, N.Y./Fordham Prep) singled to lead the inning off, and two batters later freshman Kurt Hommen (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) reached to put two on with one down. LoVetere then doubled to score the two base runners, and LoVetere was brought around when Bucci singled to trim the Baruch lead to 7-4.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, Baruch tacked on an insurance run off of junior Ryan Blinderman (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Warde), who had come on one inning earlier to get out of a jam by getting a much needed and having the defense turn a double play behind him.
 
Manhattanville went to the top of the ninth down by four and were quickly down to their final out as reliever Connor Henson retired the first two batters he faced. LoVetere walked and was chased all the way around as Nunez tripled to cut the edge to three. Nunez later scored on a passed ball to make it a two-run game, but Henson ended the inning with a strikeout to seal the victory.
 
Earning the win was Maisonet (2-0) after going 6 1/3 innings and allowing four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. Taking his first loss of the year was Pareres (1-1) after allowing three earned runs over four innings of work. Collins was touched up for three runs in 2 1/3 innings, while Blinderman allowed his first earned run of the season over 1 2/3 frames.
  
Manhattanville (3-8, 1-1 Freedom) will return to league play when it takes on Misericordia tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m. on Manhattanville Field. Baruch (2-6, 0-0 CUNYAC) will open up league play on Saturday afternoon when it takes on John Jay at a neutral site in Madison, N.J. on the campus of Drew University.