LIU Post and Le Moyne both braved the cold for a pair of games that were shortened to seven innings. Post won the first game 3-1, but fell in game two 5-2.
The first pitch was at 10 am, while the sun was trying to peek out from behind the clouds. Jake DeCarli took the mound and shut down Le Moyne’s bats. His breaking ball was spectacular, time and again he would use it to get ahead of batters on the first pitch. DeCarli threw the complete seven inning game, giving up just one run, six hits and one walk while striking out 10 batters. Although, that’s not to say there weren’t any close calls, but whenever Le Moyne would threaten, DeCarli would settle in earning his second win of the season in the process.
Offensively, Post was out-hit by Le Moyne–tallying only four hits–but the Pioneers made the most out of their opportunities, especially on the bases. Their first run came in the fourth, following a walk and a stolen base by Dave Brehm, a single up the middle from Thomas Asbaty brought him into score. Asbaty then stole second himself putting him in position to come around on Joe Piscitelli‘s single in the next at bat.
Le Moyne got on the board in the sixth, but Post got that run, and almost more back in their half of that inning. The bases had been loaded when third baseman Michael Greene was hit by a pitch, and with two outs Le Moyne’s starter, Damian Powers, plunked Sal Geraci bringing an insurance run in. That would do it for Powers, but there was still drama that inning, as the next batter, Rob Andreoli drove a fly ball deep only to be robbed of a grand slam by right fielder Brian Cox.
After DeCarli put down the final three Le Moyne batters, the Pioneers completed their eighth win of the season.
By then any hint of the sun had disappeared and very light wintery mix began to fall, not enough to put the second game in doubt but enough to add a bit of unpleasantness for players and spectators alike.
Post got on the board right away, left fielder Kenny Daley drove a two-run homer over the fence in center field in the first, scoring shortstop Jimmy Mendyk. While Post would double their amount of hits in game one they were unable to push score when they needed to leaving nine men on base.
Their best opportunity to score was also their last, the game ended with Post down three runs and the bases loaded. Singles by Matt Bowers and Andreoli set the Pioneers up, and after Daley was hit by a pitch with one out it looked like Post might have been about to pull out the win. However, Le Moyne closer, Josiah Grey struck out the final two batters with some top-notch heat.
Andreoli and Mendyk were the only two Pioneers with multi-hit games, going two for four and two for three respectively.
Starter Noah Lorenzo was playing with fire early, allowing the first two batters on base in three of his first four innings. A couple great plays by Greene at third, including a terrific diving stop in the second helped Lorenzo with his Houdini impression, repeatedly escaping trouble for the first three innings.
His mistakes caught up to him in a tough fourth inning, Le Moyne put up four runs thanks to an absolute bomb of a grand slam, and after surrendering a leadoff homer in the sixth Lorenzo’s day was done. Chris Anderson came on to pitch the final two innings and was excellent giving up just one hit and no runs.
“I like that we came out in tough conditions… and battled out a win in the first game.” Said head coach Mike Gaffney, “Second game we got out early but their pitcher did a great job… Lorenzo who’s been great all year for us, he left one pitch over the plate, they capitalized on it with the bases loaded, and that really was the ballgame. But you know, it’s baseball those things happen.”
If the weather holds out Post and Le Moyne will face off for another doubleheader tomorrow morning, and Gaffney thinks his guys will be ready, “I think this loss will light a fire under us. We want to win the weekend and we’ve got to win two tomorrow to do that… We’re going to come out fighting tomorrow.”
