WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (May 25, 2023) – With its season on the line on Thursday night, the Sacred Heart University baseball team saw its lead shrink from four runs to two, with nobody out in the fifth.
Enter Chuck.
Sophomore right-hander
Charlie Costello (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) came on, retired three straight to strand a runner in scoring position, then just stayed on for the rest of the night as well, for good measure. Five scoreless innings of two-hit relief kept the fourth-seeded Pioneers alive on the second day of the Northeast Conference Championship, with a 6-4 win in an elimination game over fifth-seeded LIU at Heritage Financial Park.
SHU (27-29) survived and advanced to a date with third-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in an elimination game at 4 p.m. on Friday, after FDU dropped a 13-2 (7 inn.) decision to second-seeded Wagner on Thursday. LIU (19-36), sees its season and its NEC title defense draw to a close.
With the game tied at 2-2, Sacred Heart jumped out in front stay with a pivotal quartet of runs in the bottom of the fourth. A walk to
Tyler Galletti (Plainview, N.Y.), a single to left by
Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) and a walk to
Nick Jaskolski (Seaford, N.Y.) loaded the bases for the top of the order, before a wild pitch plated Galletti with the inning's first run.
Sam Mongelli (Marlboro, N.Y.) then provided the game's biggest blow, as he went back up the middle for a single which chased home both Kovalchik and Jaskolski. Two batters and a pitching change later,
Dante D'Amore (Southington, Conn.) made it 6-2 with a line drive into center field for an RBI single of his own.
LIU attempted to respond immediately, in the top of the fifth. Christopher Hund led off with a walk and moved around to third when Myles Proctor followed with a double to left. A wild pitch scored Hund, and then Seth Surrett dumped an RBI single into left to cut the lead to 6-4 and bring the tying run to the plate with nobody out.
From there, it was Costello Time. The Empire State native entered and got a groundball fielder's choice from Carlton Harper, then forced a flyout to left from JC Navarro, and finally got Connor Price to flyout to center to end the frame.
Costello (6-2) was lights out from there. He rolled up a double play to erase a leadoff walk in the sixth, got the side in order in the seventh, and got another twin killing to dismiss a leadoff single in the eighth. Another leadoff single in the ninth got the tying run to the plate again, but Costello was undeterred, as he got LIU to go fielder's choice, foul out, and another fielder's choice to end the ballgame and the Sharks' season.
Right-hander Dominic Pieto (3-6) wore all the runs on the other side of the ledger for LIU. Over 3.1 innings, he surrendered six runs on seven hits, walked four, struck out five and uncorked three wild pitches.
