UNIONDALE, N.Y. – The LIU Post baseball team was eliminated from the East Coast Conference Championship after suffering two losses to No. 1 seed St. Thomas Aquinas College and No. 2 seed Molloy College at the Mitchel Athletic Complex May 11.
 
The Pioneers will await the fate of their season on Sunday when the NCAA announces the field for the 2018 NCAA Division II Tournament on NCAA.com at 10:00 p.m.
 
Senior Ramger Iglesias and juniors Anthony Vaglica and Joe Spitaleri finished with four hits apiece on the day, while junior Michael Manzione added five runs batted in thanks in part to a ninth-inning grand slam in game one.
 
Game One – No. 1 STAC 8, No. 3 LIU Post 6
 
The Pioneers were forced to play from behind for much of the contest after the Spartans scored two runs in the top of the first on a two-run home run. The Spartans extended their lead with an RBI-single in the third and a solo home run in the fourth to jump out to a 4-0 advantage.
 
Manzione put LIU Post on the board with an RBI-double in the left-center field gap in the bottom of the fourth inning and the deficit was cut in half when junior Dave Brehm drove home Iglesias with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2 through five innings. A Pioneer error in the seventh inning allowed two unearned runs to score for the Spartans, and St. Thomas Aquinas added two huge insurance runs in the top of the ninth to take a commanding 8-2 lead.
 
Despite trailing by six, LIU Post made things interesting when it loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom half of the frame. Manzione made it a two-run game with a long ball to left field, but the rally was halted two batters later and the Spartans held on for an 8-6 victory to advance to Championship Saturday.
 
Game Two – No. 2 Molloy 11, LIU Post 4
 
For the second consecutive game, LIU Post fell behind in the opening innings and could not recover. Molloy took a 4-0 lead following two RBI-singles and a bases-loaded hit by pitch in the bottom of the third to put the momentum in its favor. Once again, the Green and Gold cut the deficit in half behind an RBI-single by junior Jimmy Mendyk and a groundout, but the Lions increased the lead once again with one run in the fourth and four more in the sixth inning, taking a 9-2 advantage.
 
Iglesias drove home one run in the seventh inning to give LIU Post some life, though it did not last long as the Lions tacked on two more runs on consecutive two-out hits to put the game out of reach. Iglesias drove home one final run in the ninth inning, but the deficit was too much to overcome as the Lions advanced to Saturday's championship round against St. Thomas Aquinas.