CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – A day after the scheduled doubleheader was postponed, the Manhattanville Valiants and DeSales Bulldogs got their pair of games in on Sunday afternoon with the Bulldogs taking both games by the scores of 7-2 and 6-2.
 
Game one featured a matchup of two of the top pitchers in the Freedom Conference as junior Alex Basso (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) squared off against Colby Pacillo of the Bulldogs.
 
DeSales put a run on the board in the bottom of the first with the help of two Manhattanville errors in the field give the home team a 1-0 lead. The Bulldogs added another run in the bottom of the second, before a bases clearing double in the fourth inning gave DeSales a 5-0 lead.
 
Manhattanville was able to get the first two runners on as senior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) and junior Hans Arias (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) both reached, but the Valiants were unable to get the hit needed to scratch their first run across the plate. In the next inning, sophomore Nick Euvino (Bronx, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and senior Sean Ferguson (Astoria, N.Y./Xavier) singled, up next was senior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) and a sacrifice fly to score Euvino and make the score 5-1.
 
The Bulldogs put up two more runs in the bottom of the sixth as Basso left the game with two on and one out before being removed from the game for junior Joe Pareres (Bronxville, N.Y./Fordham Prep). A wild pitch by Pareres allowed the seventh run to score before retiring the final batter of the inning.
 
Manhattanville got one more run in the top of the seventh as Arias sent a one out home run over the left field. Pacillo ended the game with two more outs to send the teams to the dugouts for game two.
 
In the nightcap, sophomore Michael Lyon (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) was sent to the hill in search of a repeat performance from his solid outing against DeSales a season ago. However he wasn't as fortunate after allowing single runs in both the first and second innings.
 
The Valiants trimmed the lead in half as Arias reached on a one out error, and was moved to second on a groundout. Freshman Jordanis Nunez (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) singled to bring in Arias and make the score 2-1.
 
Both Lyon and DeSales starter David Drinks both pitched well into the bottom of the fifth inning, where Lyon allowed two more Bulldog runs as the lead increased to 4-1.
 
Ferguson led off the top of the sixth by attacking the first pitch he faced and made it to third base with his third career triple. LoVetere then brought him home with a groundout to shortstop. DeSales tacked on two more in the bottom of the inning with a two-run home run off of sophomore reliever Joe Palmeri (Mastic, N.Y./Eastport/South Manor), while Manhattanville went down quietly in the top of the seventh.
 
Both DeSales starters pitched complete game victories, while both of Manhattanville's starters took the losses. Pareres and Palmeri closed out both games respectively for the Valiants.
 
Manhattanville (10-24, 7-11 Freedom) will take several days before playing in its next games, which comes on the road at Merchant Marine this Thursday evening at 4 p.m. DeSales (26-8, 15-3 Freedom) has clinched a top-two seed in the Freedom Conference Tournament and will play at home against Scranton on Wednesday at 4 p.m.