EDWARDSVILLE, Pa. – Freshman Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) hit a walk-off homer with two outs in the seventh inning as the NFCA #20 and top-seeded Manhattanville College softball team advanced to the title round of the 2016 MAC Freedom Softball Championships with a 4-3 win over third-seeded FDU-Florham on Saturday at Wilkes University's Ralston Athletic Complex.
 
Manhattanville (36-2) advances to the championship round of the MAC Freedom Championships for the fourth time in the last six years and will need to win one-of-two possible games tomorrow to capture its second conference title in three seasons. FDU-Florham (18-13) will face the winner of today's fourth game between King's (Pa.) College and Misericordia University in another elimination game tomorrow at 11 a.m., with the winner of that taking on the Valiants.
 
The Valiants managed only six hits all afternoon against FDU's Sydney Worek (13-5), but two of them left the yard and accounted for three of the squad's four runs. Chapelone went 1 for 2 with two runs scored and the game-winning long ball, while classmate Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) also pitched in with a 3-for-3 effort that included a homer and three RBIs.
 
Hartenstein put Manhattanville ahead early, driving home the first run of the day in the first inning. Chapelone led off with a walk, moved to a second on a sacrifice bunt from sophomore Laurel Coito (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic), and then came home on Hartenstein's 22nd double of the year.
 
The Valiants got more two-out production from Hartenstein in the third inning, when she followed a two-out single from junior Alicia Marino (Mahopac, N.Y./Pleasantville) with her ninth homer of the season to put the team up by three after three.
 
Freshman Julianna Orrico (Bronx, N.Y./Preston) was cruising through the first four innings before running into trouble in the fifth, as FDU-Florham struck for three runs with a two-out rally. An RBI single from Paige Lillie got FDU on the board, and that was followed by a two-run bloop down the left-field line from Nikki Caruso to tie the score. Orrico finished her outing allowing three runs on six hits in five frames.
 
Sophomore Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) came on for the sixth and worked in and out of trouble over the final two frames, picking up her 20th win of the year thanks to two scoreless innings. Feeney (20-2) is only the third player in program history to reach 20 wins in a season, joining three-time 20-game winner Maggie Thomas '07 (2005-07) and Alyssa Taylor '14 (2014).