Baseball Opens 2014 Season With 21-3 Romp of Post
Box Score LANTANA, Fla. (Mar. 7, 2014) - The LIU Post baseball team erupted for a 17-run fifth inning en route to a 21-3 Opening Day win over Post Friday at the Santaluces Sports Complex in Lantana, Fla.
The 21 runs are the most runs scored since the Pioneers (1-0) plated 23 on Apr. 19, 2006, on the road at Molloy.
The green and gold were down early, as the Eagles (2-6) scored an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning. But, the Pioneer bats came alive in the fifth. LIU Post sent 23 batters to the plate that inning, scoring 17 runs on 10 hits.
Red-shirt senior infielder
Casey McKay (North Massapequa, N.Y.) led the way for the Pioneers, going 4-for-5 with his first career home run, four RBIs, three runs scored and two walks. Juniors
Joey Arena (Yorktown, N.Y.) and
Rick Alessi (St. James, N.Y.) each added three hits, while Alessi tallied five RBIs, four runs scored and two doubles in his Pioneer debut. Arena drove in four runs and came across the plate twice as well. Senior
Tom Tolan (Malverne, N.Y.), junior
Angel Vidal (Sheepshead Bay, N.Y.) and freshman
Thomas Asbaty (Randolph, N.J.) all had two-hit games. Vidal also drove in three runs and Asbaty knocked in two.
On the mound, red-shirt junior
Mike Eckerle (Hewlett, N.Y.) tossed five innings to earn the win. He allowed three hits, two unearned runs and struck out six in his first outing of the season. In relief, freshman
Dan Jagiello (West Islip, N.Y.), senior
Connor McCarthy (Westbury, N.Y.) and freshman
James Long (Oceanside, N.Y.) each tossed a scoreless frame.
The Pioneers return to action on Saturday (Mar. 8), when they take on Assumption at 4 p.m. Live stats for the contest will be available
here.