OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – A dominant pitching effort by sophomore Noah Lorenzo and junior James Varela silenced the bats of Northern Boulevard rival New York Institute of Technology as the LIU Post baseball team opened East Coast Conference play with a doubleheader sweep of the Bears, 6-1 and 5-2 March 24.
 
Varela posted his third consecutive complete game, allowing just one run while striking out nine en route to his fifth straight victory on the mound. Lorenzo followed suit in game two, going the distance with two runs allowed over seven innings, striking out eight to earn the win.
 
At the plate, senior Rob Andreoli finished 4-for-8 with two runs batted in and two runs scored. Junior Anthony Vaglica collected three hits on the day with four RBIs, while classmate Dave Brehm added three hits and an RBI as well. Fellow junior Michael Manzione collected just one hit on the day but made it count with a two-run home run to right-center field in game one.
 
Game One – LIU Post 6, NYIT 1
 
Varela made quick work of NYIT in the day's opener, as the nine-inning contest took just 2:06. After the Pioneers went down in order to begin the contest, Varela made his lone mistake of the day when he allowed a lead-off home run to NYIT's Ben McNeill as the Bears took a 1-0 lead after one inning. The junior surrendered just six base runners the rest of the way and the Pioneer offense took care of the rest late in the game.
 
Trailing 1-0 in the top of the seventh, the Pioneers took the lead on Manzione's blast with one out in the frame. Varela set the Bears down in order in the bottom half of the frame and the Green and Gold added plenty of insurance in the top of the eighth. Andreoli started a three-run stanza when he singled home senior Ramger Iglesias, and Vaglica followed up with an RBI-single in the following at-bat. Andreoli stole third later in the inning and came around to score on a throwing error on the play to put LIU Post ahead 5-1 heading to the bottom of the eighth.
 
Following a one-out infield single, Varela fanned the next two batters to get out of the inning, and Andreoli drove home the game's final run in the top of the ninth to put an exclamation point on the victory.
 
Game Two – LIU Post 5, NYIT 2
 
The Pioneers led wire-to-wire in game two, but the Bears made Lorenzo work out of several jams to earn the victory. LIU Post scored three unearned runs in the top of the first to jump out to an early lead before the Bears countered with two runs in the bottom half of the frame. Lorenzo stranded two runners on base, however, to put an end to the threat and keep the lead intact.
 
With two runners on in the top of the second, Vaglica delivered another clutch hit, lifting a double to right-center field to clear the bases and give the Pioneers a 5-2 advantage in what proved to be the final run of the afternoon. The Bears had baserunners during their next four plate appearances, but Lorenzo stranded three runners in scoring position during that stretch to help keep the lead at three runs. The southpaw struck out four of the final six batters of the game, retiring the final nine batters in order to close out the victory.
 
The Pioneers will look to keep momentum in their favor during the cross-town rivalry on Monday, March 26 when they take on the Bears at 3:30 p.m. The contest will be a home game for the Pioneers but will be played at Angelo Lorenzo Memorial Field on the campus of NYIT due to poor field conditions at LIU Post.