With two outs and nobody on, the LIU Post Pioneers were well on their way to salvaging the fourth and final game of their set against Limestone College.
Rather, the Saints mounted a furious two-out rally against closer Dillon Burke to tie the game at 11-11 on back-to-back-to-back singles.
Head Coach Mike Gaffney chose to go to the bullpen and hand the ball to Div-I transfer J.P. Lipovac. With two strikes, he uncorked a wild pitch that scooted past Thomas Asbaty to score the winning run.
It was a wild and hard-fought game on both sides.
Freshman James Varela got the first start of his collegiate career. He struggled over 3.1 IP, allowing six ER on eight hits.
The Pioneers had handed him a 6-4 lead thanks to a two-run single by Rob Andreoli, who continued his red-hot start to the season.
Limestone had taken a 10-6 lead in the bottom of the fourth but the Pioneers came storming back and scored runs on RBI singles by David Groeneveld and Lou Doria, a wild pitch that scored Kenny Daley and a two-run single by Matt Bowers.
It appeared the score would hold as, as Burke cruised through the next 3.2 innings with ease. That’s when a hard-hit single through the left side prolonged the inning. The following batter smacked a single up the middle and then a bloop single to left field in front of a diving James Cohan scored the tieing run. After the pitching change, the wild pitch put an exclamation point on a wild game in South Carolina.
LIU Post drops to 0-4 while Limestone improves to 7-3. The Pioneers will be back in action in two weeks in Austin, Texas against St. Edwards University.
