The Misericordia University baseball team will return to the Freedom Conference championship game for the third straight season after earning a 10-6 victory over Manhattanville College in the loser's bracket final on Saturday night at Memorial Field in Quakertown.

Kenny Durling went 2-4 with three RBI on a three-run home run to lead the Cougars (34-9) while Steve Sulcoski was 3-6 with an RBI and Andrew Tressa and Ryan Cacchioli each added a pair of hits.

Will Minderjahn earned the win on the mound, scattering six hits and five runs over five innings of action while striking out three. Max Weintraub picked up the save, allowing just four hits and one run with a pair of strikeouts in four innings of play.

Sean Ferguson went 3-4 with two RBI and was just a double away from the cycle to lead the Valiants (14-29) while Johnny LoVetere, Nick Euvino and Hans Arias each had two hits.

Manhattanville plated two quick runs in the top of the first on a Ferguson RBI-triple and a Bobby Guerra sacrifice fly, but the Cougars answered in their half of the inning, as Kyle Lindsay walked and Tressa singled through the left side to set up Durling's home run over the left center wall- the first of the tournament- to give MU a 3-2 lead.

The Valiants evened the score in the top of the third when a Guerra fielder's choice allowed Nunez to score, but the Cougars countered again with three runs of their own by taking advantage of a pair of Manhattanville fielding errors to take a 6-3 lead through three.

MU made it an 8-3 game in the bottom of the fourth. Sulcoski hit a leadoff single to start the inning and moved to second when Durling was hit by a pitch. A Cacchioli walk loaded the bases for Joe Tagliarini, who drove a sacrifice fly to deep left field to score Sulcoski, and Durling scored from second when Impellittiere reached on a fielder's choice and a throwing error by the Valiants.

A Guerra RBI-single and a Kevin Brady RBI-groundout cut the Cougar lead to 8-5 in the top of the fifth, but the Cougars added another run when Lindsay doubled down the line and then scored on a Sulcoski single up the middle to push the score back to 9-5.

Tressa and Sulcoski hit consecutive singles to open the bottom of the seventh, and Tressa came home to score when Julian Faria reached on an error to load the bases, making it a 10-5 game.

Ferguson hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to close the scoring for the Valiants.

MU wil play DeSales tomorrow at noon. If the Cougars win the noon game, they will face DeSales again immediately following the first game.