KINGS POINT, N.Y. – The Manhattanville baseball team dropped a non-conference contest to the Merchant Marine Mariners on Thursday afternoon by the score of 16-1 at Upper Roosevelt Field. Sophomore Bobby Guerra (Bronx, N.Y./Arlington) collected three hits, while three other Valiants each had two apiece.
 
Junior Matt Mullin (New York, N.Y./St. John's Prep) got the starting nod for Manhattanville and pitched well through the first three innings for the Valiants allowing just two walks through the nine outs.
 
In the top of the fourth inning, senior Johnny LoVetere (Southbury, Conn./Canterbury) singled as did Guerra hitting behind him. Senior John Bucci (Port Chester, N.Y./Port Chester) followed with a walk to load the bases with one out, but the Valiants were unable to get the big hit needed to break the deadlock against Merchant Marine starter Cameron Steele.
 
The Mariners touched up Mullin for a pair in the bottom of the inning, then added five more in the bottom half of the fifth inning against Mullin and freshman reliever Jason Cosentino (Valhalla, N.Y./Westlake) to take a 7-0 lead.
 
The sixth inning saw the Valiants get two of the first three runners on base as LoVetere and Bucci picked up base hits, but Stadele was able to avoid further trouble as he got the next two batters to pop up.
 
Sophomore Brian Lobel (Purchase, N.Y./Harrison) was next out of the bullpen for Manhattanville, and surrendered four more runs before the next call to the bullpen was made. Junior sidewinder Ryan Blinderman (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Warde) allowed the first two he faced to reach, but retired the next two with the bases loaded to hold Merchant Marine to an 11-0 edge.
 
The Mariners added one more run in the seventh off of Blinderman, then four more in the eighth off of graduate student Donny Pitasi (Mount Kisco, N.Y./Fox Lane) to take a 16-0 lead with Merchant Marine looking to close the game out in the top of the ninth.
 
Looking to break the shutout freshman Jordanis Nunez (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) picked up his second straight extra-base hit with a one out double. Sophomore Nate Trashansky (Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon), who had come on earlier in the game as a defensive replacement, singled to bring across Manhattanville's first run of the game. Jeff Suciu then retired the next two Valiants to end the ball game.
 
Taking the loss was Mullin, after yielding five runs in 4 1/3 innings. Cosentino closed out the fifth, and was followed by Lobel, Blinderman and Pitasi to close out the game. Picking up the win was Stadele, who ended up going seven innings without allowing a run. Ben Tracy and Suciu closed out the game going one inning apiece.
 
Manhattanville (10-25, 7-11 Freedom) will return to conference play beginning tomorrow afternoon when it takes on the FDU-Florham Devils in Madison, N.J. beginning at 3:30 p.m. Merchant Marine (18-12, 11-7 Landmark) will play on Saturday in non-conference action against the Baruch Bearcats at 12 p.m.