WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. — Dan Pirillo approached the mound intending to pull Garrett Yawn from a stellar outing with a lefty batter due up and the right-hander already having exceeded 100 pitches with two outs in the eighth inning.

"Don't do it!" Yawn respectfully but emphatically told his head coach, confident he could strand a baserunner at second base and continue to protect a four-run lead.

Pirillo relented and told Yawn that he could face one more batter.

"I told him, 'I've got four more,'" Yawn said.

Sure enough, Yawn proceeded to retire the next four Maryland Eastern Shore batters for his second career complete game as the LIU baseball team avoided elimination in the NEC Tournament with an 8-2 victory against the sixth-seeded Hawks on Wednesday night.

"There are a few guys I'll let do that to me," Pirillo said.

Connor Price drove in Jarod Wade with the tiebreaking run in what became a four-run fifth inning that had built a 6-2 lead. LIU tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth to give Yawn extra breathing room for the final three outs.

Hours earlier, fourth-seeded Sacred Heart had handed the fifth-seeded Sharks a 23-2, seven-inning loss in their tourney opener to drop LIU into the losers' bracket. But Yawn and the Sharks quickly shook off that setback and handled UMES on a rainy night at Heritage Financial Park, the home of the Yankees-affiliated Hudson Valley Renegades.

LIU, the defending NEC tourney champion, next will play on Thursday at 7 p.m. The opponent in that elimination game will be determined by Sacred Heart-Central Connecticut State and Fairleigh Dickinson-Wagner games earlier in the day.

Yawn limited UMES to two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out eight in a career-high 123-pitch  outing.

He confessed to telling his batterymate (and one-time recruiter) Price as early as the fourth or fifth inning about being gassed, but Yawn gutted through the rest of the performance anyway.

Yawn had tossed his first career complete game April 29 at Delaware State en route to being named NEC Pitcher of the Week. His previous career-high pitch count had been 121, in his next start, when he tossed six scoreless innings against Coppin State.

Yawn typically had been the Sunday starter for LIU during the conference schedule, but he shifted to the Saturday role late in the regular season. Dominic Pieto, who flipped days with Yawn, is expected to get Thursday night's start for the Sharks, in another elimination game.

The core of the bullpen remains fresh for Thursday, with neither Ty McInnes nor Jack VanDoran used during Wednesday's pair of games. VanDoran, a left-hander, had been waiting in the bullpen for Pirillo's call against UMES, but Yawn instead successfully pleaded to continue. 

"When I got moved to the Saturday starter role, I told Dan, 'Don't put a leash on me. I can go deep into games. I feel good,'" Yawn said. "One hundred pitches started feeling easy in my other starts. So going deep feels natural."

With the scored tied at 2 in the fifth, Price's single to left field plated Wade with the tiebreaking run. Jack Power followed with a two-run single. Christopher Hund then stole third and scampered home on an errant throw.

Yawn and Price have a special pitcher-catcher bond. They were playing on the same summer-ball team when Yawn learned that his pitching coach at Moorpark College in his hometown in California was leaving the program. Yawn asked his summer teammates if anyone was looking for a pitcher. Price persuaded Yawn to transfer to LIU.

Wednesday night they kept LIU's postseason alive. Price, worn down afterward, caught both full games. 

LIU has needed to battle through an inordinate number of injuries this season, and the opening day of the NEC tourney added to the list. Game 1 starter Alec Huertas slipped while trying to retrieve a first-inning bunt, which left him bruised and compromised the remainder of his outing. Designated hitter Carlton Harper was struck in the dugout with a sharply batted ball, forcing him from the game, although fortunately the lasting impact appears minimal. And second baseman Tucker LeMay needed to leave the nightcap after a headfirst slide into second base.

Still, the Sharks gutted through.

"I told myself, 'This is it,'" Yawn said. "We've got a lot of seniors on this team. I just wanted to do it for them."