Purchase, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Baseball team opened its Skyline Conference series with Manhattanville on Wednesday with a tough 12-11 extra inning loss.
Joe Stewart (Valley Stream, N.Y.) and
Jack Goodwin (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) both had big days at the plate with three hits apiece.
After falling behind 1-0 after an inning, the Mount evened the score at a run apiece in its second at-bat when
Robert Brust (Shirley, N.Y.) delivered
Liam Merlin (Reading, Mass.) with a sacrifice fly. Merlin led off the frame with a hit by pitch and advanced to third after an infield single from Stewart and a stolen base.
The Valiants came right back with three runs in the home half of the second to pull in front 4-1 before the Knights plated five runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to pull in front 9-4. The Mount recorded just two hits in the five-run fourth, including a run scoring single off the bat of Goodwin and sacrifice fly from
Steven Mirra (Wallingford, Conn.) that delivered Brust.
In the fifth, the Mount plated three runs after the first two batters of the inning were retired. Goodwin started the rally with a single and a stolen base and later scored on a three-run home run off the bat of
Dominick Marzigliano (Highland Mills, N.Y.). The round tripper was the second of the season for Marzigliano.
Manhattanville battled back to within 9-8 with a four-run sixth inning featuring a run scoring double from Anthony Quatrochi, but the Mount responded with a run in the seventh to pull back in front 10-8.
Devin Tait (Staten Island, N.Y.) pushed Brust across with a two-out single to move the Mount back in front by a pair.
Manhattanville would plate the next three runs to pull in front 11-10 heading to the ninth. Tyler Mandel pushed home two tallies with a single in the seventh to tie the score at 10-10 and Quatrochi added another run scoring hit in the eighth to give the Valiants a late 11-10 advantage.
Down to their last at-bat, trailing by a run, the Knights tied the score without the benefit of a hit. Mirra worked a one-out walk, advanced to second on a groundout and scored the tying run on an error to bring the Mount even at 11-11.
Manhattanville had the winning run at second base in the home half of the ninth, but could not get it home and after the Knights stranded the go ahead run at second after a leadoff double in the tenth, finally broke through. Quatrochi led off the last of the tenth with a walk and after moving to second on a sacrifice, scored on a two-out single through the middle off the bat of Matt Lynch to give the Valiants the series opener.
Mount Saint Mary pounded out 11 hits in the game, led by a 3-for-5 effort from Stewart and a 3-for-4 showing from Goodwin. Stewart doubled and scored a run for the Knights, while Goodwin finished with a run, an RBI and a stolen base.
Marzigliano continued his strong start to the season, going 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a trio of RBI. Mirra and Brust each finished with two runs scored for the Mount.
Lynch finished the win for Manhattanville 3-for-6 out of the leadoff spot with three runs and an RBI. He led four Valiants with at least two hits in the game.
Matthew Borriello (Montgomery, N.Y.) made the start and took a no decision after working 4.0 innings and allowing three earned runs on four hits.
Anthony Caminitti (Mahopac, N.Y.) suffered the loss in relief after allowing a single run on one hit in 1.2 innings of work.
Luke Shaffer earned the win for Manhattanville, working the final 3.1 innings and allowing just one run. He surrendered just two hits and struck out six Knights.
Wednesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 2-3 overall on the season and to 2-2 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Mount is a weekend series with Purchase that opens on Saturday. The Knights and Panthers will play two in Newburgh on Saturday afternoon starting at 12:00 p.m.
