DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – The top-seeded Manhattanville College softball team remained alive in the race for a conference title as the Valiants defeated third-seeded King's (Pa.) College, 9-2, in game six of the 2017 MAC Freedom Softball Championships, hosted by Delaware Valley University on Sunday.
 
With the win, Manhattanville (29-13) forces the if-necessary game and will battle King's (19-18) in one more game for the MAC Freedom Championship starting at approximately 3:20 p.m.
 
Six different Valiants had multiple hits and six players drove in a run as part of a 14-hit attack. Sophomore Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) went 2-for-3 with a homer and senior Alicia Marino (Mahopac, N.Y./Pleasantville) also had two hits and homered in the win, while sophomore Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) went 1-for-3 with three big runs batted in to lead the Valiants.
 
Junior Alycia Feeney (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) picked up her second straight win in the circle for Manhattanville, improving to 16-5 on the year by allowing six hits and striking out three.
 
After Feeney stranded a runner on third in the bottom of the first, the Valiant bats came alive in the second, scoring four times. Marino led off the inning by crushing her 12th homer of the season to center, giving her sole possession of third on the school single-season list. Chapelone followed with a bases-clearing double just off the glove of center fielder Amber Saylor.
 
The Valiants added one more to the ledger in the third, when Buboi led off the inning with a long homer to center that gave the squad a 5-0 lead after two and a half innings. Manhattanville put two more on the scoreboard in the fourth thanks to a King's error and a RBI single off the shortstop's glove from senior Dolores Diemicke (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge).
 
After a leadoff walk in the first inning, Feeney settled into a groove in the circle, retiring nine straight batters before a clean single through the left side by Samantha Bloom to lead off the fourth. King's loaded the bases with three hits in the inning, but senior Brittany Deieso (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) caught a low-liner in center and fired to second base to double up a Monarch runner and end the threat.
 
One more Valiant run crossed the plate in the fifth after a sacrifice fly from freshman Melina Strano (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) scored sophomore Evonne Torres (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Pioneer), but King's scored twice in the bottom of the fifth to extend the game. Torres added a RBI double in the sixth to extend the lead back to seven and Feeney finished things off from there.