BROOKVILLE, N.Y. – In a break from conference action, LIU baseball hosted Hofstra on Wednesday afternoon, taking down the Pride, 4-3, in 10 innings. With the victory, the Sharks improve to 14-10 on the year.
Garrett Yawn earned the start on the rubber for the Sharks, his sixth of the season. After surrendering a hit to the leadoff batter, Yawn navigated through the top of the first without allowing a run.
In the bottom half,
Giovanni Ciaccio led things off with a single, and
Seth Surrett moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt. Ciaccio would later swipe third base, his ninth bag of the year. Up next,
EJ Exposito would ground into a fielder's choice to bring home the first run of the game which gave the Sharks an early 1-0 advantage.
Each team had one-two-three innings in the second, sending the game to the third inning with LIU still leading, 1-0. The Pride tied the game on a sacrifice fly to left, evening the game at 1-1.
Ciaccio knocked a double into left to begin the frame, but the Sharks were unable to bring home any runs in the third. Yawn worked quickly in the fourth by throwing only 12 pitches. Through four, the game was still tied at 1-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, Colin Price singled to center on the second pitch he saw. After a pitching change and two outs later, Ciaccio batted in a run on a triple just fair down the right field line. It was 2-1, LIU, after the fifth inning.
Chris Buehler came in for relief of Yawn, who was in line to collect the win after throwing five innings and giving up four hits and a run with two strikeouts. Buehler walked the second batter he faced, but he forced a fielder's choice and a flyout to end the inning without surrendering the Sharks lead.
Nick DeSalvo was the definition of efficiency when he entered the game in the seventh inning. He only threw six pitches, which were all strikes, to retire the heart of the Pride order. DeSalvo came back in the eighth and continued to dominate, picking up two strikeouts and completing two innings of work.
In the bottom of the eight, LIU added an insurance run. Surrett and
Luke Turner drew walks to put two runners on base. Surrett would advance on a wild pitch to move to third. With runners on the corners, Kaenzig attempted to pick off Turner at first, which allowed Surrett to sprint to home and beat a tag to score a run. Entering the ninth, the Sharks led, 3-1.
Josh Gainer came on to pitch in the ninth. Hofstra was able to tie the game at three after an error to begin the frame and two RBI singles. The game moved to the bottom of the ninth at 3-3. The Sharks failed to get the offense going, which sent the2 game to extra innings.
The Pride were held scoreless in the top of the 10
th by
Nick Torres, sending the game to the bottom half of the inning.
Myles Proctor led off and drew a five-pitch walk, which led Ciaccio to lay down a sacrifice bunt to move Proctor into scoring position.
Surrett stepped to the dish and drew a walk of his own to put two on base. Exposito hit a hard grounder to short and beat out the throw to load the bases for Turner, who was hit by a pitch, to send home the game-winning run. Torres earned the win while Kaenzig was given the loss. Ciaccio finished with three hits to lead the club.
Up next, the Sharks will host Merrimack for a three-game series starting on Friday, April 1 at 3:00 p.m.
