[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWZXbvS75t0]
Pitching against the reigning regional champs proved to be no obstacle for LIU Post‘s ace Jake DeCarli. The 6’0″ sophomore boosted his resume with seven strong innings, allowing one run on five hits, two walks while striking out six to improve his record to 3-1 and actually increased his ERA to 0.76, as the Pioneers cruised past the Spartans 9-3.
His fastball-slider combo was too much for the Spartan offense.
“You gotta throw sliders when they’re an aggressive hitting team,” said DeCarli. “You want to establish it early,” he added.
The offense supported him as well. They opened up the scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first that brought in Kenny Daley.
They opened it up with three-spots in the second and third innings. Their three runs in the second came without the benefit of a hit–a bases load HBP, walk and RBI groundout made the score 4-0.
In the third inning, Rick Alessi drove in David Groeneveld with an RBI double. John Bellock hit a routine fly ball to CF that was dropped, bringing in another run and Daley made it hurt with an RBI double of his own.
The fourth inning brought another crooked number, as the Pioneers chased the Spartans starter, Anthony Morris, and a reliever with a sac fly and an RBI single to bring the score to 9-0.
With a pitcher like DeCarli on the mound, that is more than enough.
“We jumped on ’em early,” said DeCarli. “When you jump on ’em early, you win,” he added.
The offense smacked 11 hits–Daley, Iacono, Matt Bowers and Alessi all had two each.
Jake DeCarli, Pioneers Cruise Past St. Thomas Aquinas
