Uniondale, N.Y. - On Thursday, the fourth-seeded LIU Post baseball team shutout top-seeded Dowling, 8-0, on Day 1 of the 2015 East Coast Conference Baseball Championships held at the Mitchell Field Athletic Complex in Uniondale.
A day after being named the conference's Pitcher of the Year, sophomore Jake DeCarli (Higganum, Conn.) took the mound and put the team on his back.
Through the first two innings, the Pioneers (18-16) and Golden Lions (27-14) seemed destined for a pitchers' duel. But the green and gold changed that quickly in the third.
With two outs and two on, sophomore outfielder Kenny Daley (Glenwood Landing, N.Y.) reached on an error that allowed graduate outfielder Vinny Iacono (Nesconset, N.Y.) to score the game's first run. Then, with runners on second and third, sophomore catcher Thomas Asbaty (Randolph, N.J.) singled through the right side, scoring red-shirt senior Anthony Brunetti (Bayville, N.Y.) and Daley, making it 3-0.
In the fourth, the Pioneers took advantage of another miscue by the Golden Lions. With runners on second and third and two outs, junior second baseman Matt Bowers (Staten Island, N.Y.) scored on a wild pitch and Iacono singled home senior shortstop Rick Alessi (St. James, N.Y.) to make it 5-0. Then, Brunetti hit a long fly ball that hit the wall down the left-field line, driving in Iacono to make it 6-0.
Later, in the fifth, with runners on second and third, Alessi singled to center, scoring Asbaty. Bowers was thrown out at the plate on the play, but Alessi moved to second on the throw. Red-shirt senior Rich Maccarone (Glen Cove, N.Y.) followed with a ground-rule double that allowed Alessi to come home, making it 8-0.
While the offense was red-hot, DeCarli was even hotter on the bump.
The righty didn't allow a runner beyond second until the bottom of the fifth, and even that didn't matter.
DeCarli would throw a complete game, five-hit shutout to earn his sixth win of the season and improve his ECC-best earned run average to 0.76.
Iacono finished 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI. Brunetti, Asbaty and Bowers all collected two hits each and Asbaty added two RBIs.
Head Coach Mike Gaffney and the Pioneers will take on third-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas, who defeated second-seeded Bridgeport, on Friday (May 8) at 1 p.m.
Provided by the LIU Post Sports Information Department.
