Augusta, N.J. – LIU baseball has won the NEC Championship following Sunday's 22-8 defeat of FDU.
Taking command of the game early on, the Sharks jumped out in front with a seven-run first inning. The team's first three batters –
Noah Sorensen,
Ryan Rivera, and
Elijah Fairchild -- all reached base to load the bases and the run-scoring carousel was set in motion with a walk to cleanup hitter
Mike Polubinski.
Nick Matson then hit an RBI single,
Cord Dobrinski was hit by a pitch to bring another across home plate, and
Joseph Durso walked with the bases still loaded before FDU was finally able to record the first out of the inning.
That out happened to be an RBI sacrifice fly by
Jake Kelleher, scoring Matson. Dobrinski later scored on a wild pitch, and the Sharks batted around as Sorensen came up again, recording an RBI via a ground-out as LIU found themselves up 7-1 by the end of the first.
That offensive onslaught helped the Sharks set the tone, continuing to add to their lead throughout, even withstanding all of FDU's efforts to bridge the gap by scoring in each of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, respectively.
With LIU holding a ten-run lead in the bottom of the sixth at 18-8, the contest's exclamation point emerged in the form of a
Joseph Durso grand slam, putting the game out of reach 22-8 to give his team the opportunity to successfully slam the door shut and finish things off in the seventh via mercy rule.
Durso led the Sharks with five RBI on the day, going 1-for-2 with four runs scored and two walks. Fairchild also drove in five as part of a 3-for-4 outing at the plate with two runs scored. Matson went 2-for-3 with a triple, RBI, and three runs scored, and
Ryan Rivera scored four times as part of a 1-for-2 performance with two walks.
Torin Kassebaum earned the win for LIU, pitching three and two-thirds innings and striking out a pair while allowing two runs on three hits. This is LIU's fourth NEC Championship win, and third in the last five years.
The Sharks will move on to the NCAA Tournament, where they await their opponent.
