by Vinny Messana
Coming off their three worst games of the season, in the words of Head Coach Mike Gaffney, he felt the team needed a day off to get their heads right.
Fortunately, Easter came at the perfect time for the Pioneers of LIU Post. They salvaged the fourth and final games of their series against rival Molloy by the score of 9-0 behind freshman Brian Kavanagh’s three-hit shutout.
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana
“It was really important today to come back, really for the guys to prove to themselves that they’re not the team that took the field the last few days,” said Gaffney.
They got on the scoreboard immediately in this one, when David Groeneveld recorded his first of three hits and four RBI on the day with an RBI infield single that shortstop Brian Murphy smothered but couldn’t throw him out in time.
They added two runs in the third when Groeneveld came up again and smacked a ball to right field. Right fielder Christian Todd slipped and it went over his head. Groeneveld legged out the RBI triple, but the throw scooted past third baseman Kevin Podell and Groeneveld came around to score on the little league home run to make it 3-0.
That was all the offense that Kavanagh would need. He entered the game with a 6.75 ERA but had showed his mettle and pitchability on the hill to the coaching staff. With today’s shutout, he lowered his ERA to 4.91 ERA and lowered his opponent’s average to .228. While he didn’t have overpowering stuff (check our scouting reports page for in-depth report on him), he did have a game plan and he executed it flawlessly.
“He’s a bulldog,” said Gaffney in regards to his young pitcher. “He’s not the kind of guy that’s gonna overpower you, but he’s a guy who’s gonna throw strikes, he’s gonna get you 0-1, he throws multiple pitches for strikes, he throws different locations, mixes up the speeds and that’s all you gotta do. You got guys that throw hard that are throwers, this kid’s a pitcher,” he added.
He did benefit from his catcher, Thomas Asbaty, throwing out three would-be base stealers in the first three innings of the game that helped his chances of keeping the Lions off the board.
The third inning was the only inning that he allowed more than one base runner, and both of those runners were caught stealing. From that point on he was completely in the control of the game, and worked with an efficient tempo.
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The Pioneers broke open the game in the eighth inning when Asbaty lined an RBI single to right to make it 7-0 and Groeneveld followed with a two-run double off the right center field wall–just narrowly missing a grand slam–and making it 9-0.
For the Lions, Deilyn Guzman, Michael Rahn and Jack McCarty were the only hitters to compile a hit. Seth Noreman fired five innings, allowing two ER and was tagged with his second loss of the season.
The Pioneers are now 9-11 and will be back in action on Wednesday as they host East Stroudsburg while the Lions fall to 14-7 and will host Bloomfield College tomorrow.
