EMMITSBURG, Md. — The LIU baseball team moved closer to claiming the Northeast Conference title on Thursday. A pair of individual feats highlighted the latest victory.
EJ Exposito homered twice to enter the top 10 in the program's Division I history for single-season long balls and
Joshua Loeschorn briefly joined the NCAA leaders with his 10th victory as the Sharks edged Mount St. Mary's 9-8 in Thursday's series opener.
The Sharks trimmed their magic number to one to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NEC Tournament and at least a share of the conference title.
Two games remain. An LIU win on Friday — or Bryant loss against Wagner — secures the top seed for the Sharks. Both occurrences and LIU wins the NEC title outright without any drama required on the final day of the regular season.
LIU sits at 17-8 in the NEC, while Bryant is 16-9. The teams split the season series, but the Sharks own the tiebreaker by virtue of their record against whichever team finishes third in the conference.
LIU is bidding for the third NEC regular-season title in program history. It won the league outright in 1990 and won the North Division in 2000.
Bryant, which posted a walk-off win against Wagner on Thursday after squandering a three-run lead in the top of the inning, has won the last nine regular-season titles.
Meanwhile, LIU took a six-run lead to the bottom of the eighth against Mount St. Mary's, but needed
Josh Gainer's strikeout of Jake Maske to strand the tying run in scoring position that frame en route to his seventh save.
"We've been in that situation before," coach
Dan Pirillo said. "Josh had been in that situation. The more we do well and have success late in games, the more it translates to postseason play. That's what we're getting ready for right now."
Loeschorn benefited from three first-inning runs from his teammates en route to becoming only the second pitcher in the program's D-I history to record double-digit wins in a season. He now trails only Sal Campisi's 12 wins in 1964.
Loeschorn pulled even with Maryland's Ryan Ramsey and Campbell's Thomas Harrington for the NCAA lead with victory No. 10, although Harrington picked up his 11th win that evening against Radford.
Seth Surrett set the tone in the series opener, belting a leadoff homer on the game's third pitch.
Christopher Wasson delivered a two-run single later in the frame. Surrett's shot was the first game-opening homer for the Sharks since
Giovanni Ciaccio at Hofstra on March 11, 2020.
Exposito produced a solo homer in what became a two-run third to open a 5-0 lead. His solo homer in the sixth made it 9-3.
With the first homer, Exposito became the first LIU player to reach double-digits in long balls since Joe Zeccardi had 13 in 1999. When he belted No. 11 on the season in the sixth, he moved into a tie with Alfredo Cardwood (1983) and Louis Hernandez (1986) for ninth on the single-season homers list in the program's D-I history.
Exposito also had a two-homer game in a March 11 win at Fordham.
Loeschorn was charged with three runs (one earned) on eight hits and three walks while striking out four in a 95-pitch outing spanning five innings.
The Sharks had set the program's D-I win record on Tuesday at Siena, and now stand at 33-17 overall.
