Today is the first round of the ECC tournament with No. 4 LIU Post taking on No. 1 Dowling. Those rankings can be thrown out in a match up like this.
The team’s are very familiar with eachother, having played a four-game series less than one month ago. The Pioneers won three of four including a 7-2 victory with today’s starter, Jake DeCarli, on the mound.
Here’s a quick rundown off the team’s statistics.
LIU Post: 17-16
Offense:
AVG: .255
OBP: .338
XBH: 58
K: 266
BB: 131
Pitching:
ERA: 3.83
Strikeouts/9: 7.27
BB/9: 3.87
H/9: 8.8
Defense:
FLD %: .942
Dowling: 27-13
Offense:
AVG: .294
OBP: .383
XBH: 88
K: 220
BB: 156
Pitching:
ERA: 2.96
Strikeouts/9: 7.07
BB/9: 3.49
H/9: 8.38
Defense:
Fielding %: .959
Verdict: On paper, the Golden Lions are the much more balanced team. They really have no weakness-they play tremendous defense, they can parade out .300 hitter after .300 hitter, they got on base at a .383 clip and they have a team ERA under 3.00 including a bullpen with Dennis Buckstein, Nick Persad and Andrew Sesto that can all go multiple innings and shut down the opposition.
The biggest difference is that DeCarli is lights out and he has not thrown a bad game this season. For that reason the Pioneers will come out on top today. Dowling’s starter, Brendan Butler has been strong this season with five wins and a 3.08 ERA but he has not been on the level of his counterpart.
