LIU Post baseball back in Brookville

The Island Now
Mike Gaffney, LIU Post's head baseball coach (Photo by Myles Goldman)

By Myles Goldman

With the baseball season in full swing, the LIU Post Pioneers came back to Brookville to play their first home game on Saturday, March 17, after opening the season with 14 games away.

The first 14 games of the season were monumental for some of the players.

Junior pitcher James Varela was awarded East Coast Conference Player of The Week on March 12 after pitching all nine innings and striking out 12 batters against Franklin Pierce University on March 10 in Cary, N.C.

Junior infielder Jimmy Mendyk also had a game to remember on the road when he picked up four hits to aid in a win for the Pioneers against Dominican College on March 11.

Head baseball coach Michael Gaffney is pleased that the team has returned home after spending many weekends on the road.

“We feel better about playing on our field, sleeping in our beds and leaving our suitcases unpacked, but the snow is our only wrinkle.” The team travels to North Caroline and South Carolina to begin every season.

The Pioneers are the only Division II baseball team that still has a grass baseball field.

But, the Pioneers are able to use the fields at Adelphi University and New York Institute of Technology in case of inclement weather, since turf sustains its structure during bad weather. Turf doesn’t create puddles of water, which can lead to injuries.

As the team heads home, they’re sitting in eighth place in the East Region ranking after a 2-0 victory against Franklin Pierce University on March 10.

At the beginning of the season, the Pioneers were in fifth place, so they dropped down three ranks.

“We had a tough week in Myrtle Beach,” Coach Gaffney said, “but by the end of the year, we’ll be in the top seven. I don’t put too much stock in it because it’s still early.”

The Pioneers will play their next game at home against the NYIT Bears on Friday, March 23 in Brookville.

This article was originally published in the Pioneer, the award-winning student newspaper of LIU Post, www.liupostpioneer.com, and is republished here by Blank Slate Media with the permission of the Pioneer.

 

TAGGED: baseball, liu post
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