Game 1: Manhattanville - 2, Farmingdale State 1
Game 2: Farmingdale State 12, Manhattanville - 7
PURCHASE, N.Y. | In a battle of undefeated teams at the top of the Skyline Conference softball standings Sunday, Farmingdale State College and Manhattanville University split their afternoon doubleheader. The host Valiants (24-8, 13-1 Skyline) earned a 2-1 victory in the opening contest, before the Rams (26-8, 13-1) – who are listed in the initialÂ
NCAA Division III Softball Region 3 Ranking of the season – responded with a 12-7 triumph in the nightcap.
Game 1
The opening game featured an upperclassmen pitcher's duel between Farmingdale State senior
Allie Stanya (Babylon, N.Y.; 5 H, 2 BB, 5 K) and Manhattanville graduate student Charli Shinstine (3 H, 4 BB, 10 K), as the pair allowed only eight combined hits, with each firing a complete game with no earned runs allowed.
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning, when Manhattanville scratched across a pair of unearned runs across Stanya.
FSC answered with one run of their own in the top of the fifth inning. Senior right fielder
Jenna Giliberti (Bellmore, N.Y.) hit a one-out single back up the middle past Shinstine, before stealing second base. Freshman third baseman
Bailey Hammock (Pt. Jervis, N.Y.) singled to left in the next at-bat, where Giliberti was ruled safe at home plate due to obstruction by the Valiants' catcher. From there, the Rams stranded Hammock at third base, and were unable to bring the tying run across against Shinstine – who allowed a run for the first time in her last 62.0 innings in the circle.
Senior shortstop
Angelina Capuano (Sayville, N.Y.) notched one hit in the opener for the Rams, while sophomore
Samantha Stolfi (Pt. Jefferson Station, N.Y.) and freshmen
Anna Rahner (Islip, N.Y.),
Ashley Toro (Islip, N.Y.) and
Madison Sturtz (E. Islip, N.Y.) working one walk each.
Game 2
The Rams battled for a five-run victory in the second game with nine runs across the final four innings, overcoming an early 5-3 deficit along the way. FSC scored twice in the opening at-bat of the contest, with Hammock scoring on a one-out double to left field by Capuano (3-for-5, 2 2B, R, RBI), before scoring two batters later on a successful squeeze bunt by junior pitcher
Ava Shorr (No. Babylon, N.Y.).
The visitors upped their lead to 3-0 in the top of the second frame, when Giliberti's (3-for-5, R, 2 RBI) two-out double to right-center field plated Sturtz (2-for-4, 3 R, SB).
Manhattanville responded in the home half by scoring five runs (four unearned) with two outs off of Shorr, taking a two-run advantage in the process.Â
Farmingdale State's answer came in the form of a five-run frame of its own in the top of the fifth, as it regained the lead for good at 8-5. Giliberti scored Toro on a bases-loaded single through the left side, before Hammock's RBI ground out scored freshman left fielder
Isabella Marchini (Hicksville, N.Y.; 1-for-3, BB) with the tying run. After Sturtz and Giliberti scored one batter later on Capuano's single through the left side to regain the lead for FSC at 7-5, Shorr helped herself with a RBI single up the middle to plate Capuano and give the visitors a three-run edge.
The two teams exchanged one run apiece in their respective halves of the fifth inning, with the Rams' score coming on a bunt single by Hammock that scored Sturtz. The Valiants closed to within a 9-7 count with one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning, before Rahner's three-run homer to right field – the second of her career and her first outside-the-park effort – in the top of the seventh inning closed out the scoring.
Shorr won her eighth-straight start to move to 11-5 on the campaign, allowing seven hits and just one earned run while fanning four Valiants.
Farmingdale State next will play host Purchase College in a Skyline doubleheader, Saturday (May 4) at noon.
