BROOKVILLE, N.Y. — History will wait until at least Sunday.
Colin Adams produced a game-tying solo homer in the seventh, but the Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team erupted for four runs in the 10th inning to claim a 5-2 win against LIU on Saturday.
The Sharks, still alone in first place atop the Northeast Conference standings, had been bidding to match the 2018 team for the program's Division I record for wins in a single season with No. 31.
That bid will now wait until Sunday's 1 p.m. rubber game with the Knights.
Adams' solo homer in the seventh had evened the score at 1.
Adams, who had belted a two-run homer in Friday's series-opening win, this time went airborne after crossing the plate for an arm bash with teammate
Ryan Mullahey.
The Sharks had been held hitless until consecutive one-out singles in the sixth by
Giovanni Ciaccio and
Christopher Wasson against Knights reliever Nick Evangelista, although both were stranded that frame.
FDU starter Ethan Rembish held LIU hitless through five innings, despite issuing six walks among the 20 batters he faced. That included three straight two-out walks in the fifth. That threat ended for the Sharks when
Michael Edelman worked out of an 0-2 count, fouling off four two-strike pitches, before grounding into a fielder's choice.
Starter
Jalen Wade pitched effectively for LIU in a no-decision. He limited FDU to one run on one hit and four walks in six innings.
The Sharks nearly scored the tiebreaking run in the eighth, but FDU right fielder Tom Ruscitti threw out Ciaccio at the plate trying to score from second base on
Carlton Harper's one-out single. A half-inning later,
Josh Gainer stranded two Knights in scoring position, ultimately sending the game to extra innings.
Gainer and
Kurt Lange were charged with a combined four runs (three earned) in the 10th.
EJ Exposito delivered a solo homer in the bottom half.
"The pitching held us through nine," coach
Dan Pirillo said. "That's all you can ask from them."
The Sharks dropped to 30-17 overall and 15-8 in the NEC, still good for the conference lead.
Saturday's game came on a day when LIU honored alumni from its Brooklyn and Post histories during a pregame ceremony. The attendees included longtime Brooklyn coach Frank Giannone, an Athletics Hall of Famer who amassed 544 wins from 1977 through 2004.
Also on hand were families ahead of Sunday's Senior Day ceremony, when the Sharks will honor 13 student-athletes in a pregame ceremony.
"It was great to see so many familiar and new faces, who I met for the first time," Pirillo said. "It was good to see guys from both campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn. It was good seeing Coach Giannone. It was really good to see so many smiling faces today."
