LIU Post captures the 2019 ECC Championship! pic.twitter.com/9Aq1bJyHvB
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 11, 2019
For the second time in the past three seasons, Coach Mike Gaffney and the LIU Post Pioneers captured the ECC Championship. They did so in dominant fashion defeating the University of Bridgeport, 15-0, and winning their three postseason games by an aggregate score of 35-5.
They will now advance to the NCAA East Regionals next weekend. The location and seeds will be announced tonight at 10pm.
This game was put to rest rather quickly. The Pioneers got a leadoff home run by Giovanni Ciaccio, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the ECC Tournament. They added four more runs on a grand slam by Michael Manzione, his 10th of the season to go along with his 40th RBI.
In the fourth inning, Andy Camilo cleared the bases with a double to score Manzione, Ciaccio and Anthony Vaglica to open up a 9-0 lead.
Ciaccio was not done for the day. He left the yard again in the sixth inning, this time with the bases loaded. The grand slam opened up a 14-0 lead for the Pioneers. The offense added one more in the eighth inning on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Michael Greene.
With any pitcher, a 15-0 lead is sufficient but with the ECC Pitcher of the Year Joshua Loeschorn on the mound, the game was sealed after Ciaccio’s leadoff home run. The freshman sensation improved his record to 10-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.36. He has held opposing batters to .166 on the season and is a lock for All-American.
“With Josh on the mound we had a lot of confidence that he was going to have the performance he had,” said Manzione. “Every time he’s stepped on the mound this year, we’ve had that confidence that we’re going to win.”
The Pioneers set a program-record for wins in a season (36). They had gotten off to a rough start to the season down in Tampa–getting swept by a total score of 27-3. After losing the following Friday at Southern New Hampshire, 2-1, they sat at 0-4 on the season. From that point on, they’ve gone 36-10.
“What clicked for us was having everyone in the lineup hitting. The pitching was doing really well, we just couldn’t put all the pieces together with hitting. We had a lineup of 1 through 9 hitting all together which I think helped us turn it around.”
Lastly, is the fact that following the last out of this season–whether it’s in the Regionals or beyond, it will be the last Division-II game for this program as they combine with the Brooklyn campus. Only seven of the Post players will be making that trip.
“I think the merger helped us with team bonding and chemistry. We made it a goal of ours after it happened to go out and be the best LIU Post baseball team in school history. We wanted to break whatever records that were already set which we’ve been doing now. We also set out to win the ECC Championship and try to go as far as possible.”
