Box Score PURCHASE (NY) – Delaware Valley University nearly pulled off late-game heroics for the third contest in a row, but host Manhattanville College held on for a 5-4, Freedom Conference victory.
It was the first of a three-game series between the two teams and the scene will now shift to Doylestown for a doubleheader on Saturday. The victory lifted the Valiants to 16-13 overall and 9-5 in the Freedom while the Aggies fell to 8-13 and 2-8.
Delaware Valley, which had walk-off wins against 13
th-ranked Misericordia University and FDU-Florham earlier in the week, trailed 5-2 heading into the top of the ninth inning.
Kevin Crill notched a one-out single and
Ben Lippincott followed with a single of his own. After a ground out moved both runners up a base,
Austin Bregman, representing the tying run, reached on an error and moved up to second on the play as Crill and Lippincott both scored. However, Valiants reliever Joe Palmieri got
Corey White to fly out to right to end the game and pick up his first save of the year.
Manhattanville opened the scoring in the first with a RBI single by Jake McGrath. The Valiants then plated three runs in the second, including a RBI double by Bobby Guerra and a RBI triple by Kevin Brady.
It stayed a 4-0 game until the seventh inning when the Aggies struck for their first two runs. They loaded the bases with one out thanks to singles by
Jeremy Stewart and
Bobby Altieri and a walk by
Matt Beyer. Crill reached on a fielder's choice that scored Stewart and Altieri crossed home plate on Lippincott's RBI single through the right side.
Manhattanville added one in the eighth when John Delahanty led off the stanza with a solo home run. That proved to be the decisive run as Delaware Valley trailed to rally in the ninth, but came up one run short.
Stewart was 3-for-4 while Crill, Lippincott and
Kyle Wenger had two hits apiece for the Aggies.
Liam Constantine picked just one inning and took the loss while
Trevor Dalton hurled seven innings in relief.
Dilton Healy improved to 5-1 as he went seven innings for the Valiants. Delahanty was 3-for-3 with the home run, two runs scored and one RBI while Guerra was 2-for-3 with a run scored and a RBI.
