Harrison Alumns Lead Manhattanville to Conference Championship

John Kain and Joe Gallace have known one another since their very first days at Samuel J. Preston Elementary School. Now they have finished their senior baseball season at Manhattanville College as conference champions.

The season did not start out the way that the Valiants would have liked, the team had the nation's fourteenth hardest schedule and the squad appeared early as if they were not up to the challenge. Manhattanville started out 2 - 5 and at one point early in the season the Valiants lost seven of eight games, putting the team in an early hole at 7 - 13.

But the slow start proved to be a learning experience for the team. The top four squads in the Freedom Conference make it into the conference tournament at the end of the year. Manhattanville was able to get hot and climb out of the early hole to make it to the tournament as a third seed.

"We won 15 out of our last 20 games to make it to the tournament," said Gallace."We just kept telling each other that all we had to do was make the tournament and once we got in that anything could happen."

The first game pitted Manhattanville against their hated rival from Fairleigh Dickinson at Florham. Manhattanville went on the road and won the first round game 10-6.

John Kain pitched the second game in the tournament against DeSales. In the biggest game of the season, the team was confident with Kain, a Harrison High School graduate as the starting pitcher.

"We are always confident when John has the ball," said Gallace. "He led the team in strikeouts this year and the important thing about him is that he isn't afraid to throw the ball inside. All of the pitchers in our league pitch to the outer half of the plate, so the hitters get used to seeing that and it is a huge asset that he can throw inside accurately."

DeSales was the number one seed in the tournament and they had already beaten Kain earlier in the season and had won two out of the three regular season meetings, but this time Kain was clearly at his best.

"I felt like I was on my A game when they beat me earlier in the season so I had no idea what I could do personally to beat this team, I was extra nervous before the game," said Kain. "We were up against the conference pitcher of the year (Dave Drinks) and offensively it took us some time to get started, but in the fifth inning we had five straight hits and rattled him. It was probably the first time he had been hit around all year. After that I just got into a good groove and we won the game."

"This whole season John has been fighting hard," said Gallace. "He was out there working every day. As a senior some guys just get content with where they are, but John played hard every game and always gave it his all in practice and in the weight room and by the end of the season his curveball was untouchable."

In 7 2/3 innings pitched the senior threw close to 130 pitches and only gave up three earned runs on seven hits, picking up five strikeouts in the 10 - 3 win. 

The championship game of the tournament pitted Manhattanville against FDU-Florham again. But like the game earlier in the tournament the rematch proved to be the same. Manhattanville overpowered the Devils to the final score of 10 - 3 for the conference trophy.

The Freedom Conference named shortstop Joe Gallace the tournament's most valuable player. At the end of the tournament Gallace was 7-for-13 from the plate with two doubles and a home run.

"The shortstop on FDU may be the best shortstop in the conference," said Kain. "But in the game it was clear the Joe was the best shortstop on the field. Joe got us the hits we needed and played great on defense. He just came to play in the postseason - it was like a new Joe when the playoffs came around."

As college teammates Kain and Gallace have come a long way since their days at Preston Elementary. Together, they have seen their careers move from the high school diamond to a college conference championship.

"We were friends in high school but we are definitely a lot closer now," said Kain. "We have picked each other up after a bad game and we have celebrated with one another on the good ones so we both would consider ourselves to be much better friends now."

As a team the Manhattanville Valiants won the Freedom conference tournament for the first time in the schools history and finished the story season with a record of 22-21-1. The senior led team will look different next year but as for the 2010 season Kain, Gallace, and the rest of the Valiants are champions.