Waterbury, CT – For the second straight season the Post University baseball team reached Championship Saturday of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Tournament after defeating Goldey-Beacom, 10-5 in an elimination game on Friday at Municipal Stadium.
The Eagles will take on the no. 2 seed in the North, Felician on Saturday at 11 a.m. With a win, the Eagles will move onto the if necessary game, following shortly after.
Post took control early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the third after
Jimmy Brennan put the Eagles on the board with an RBI double.
DJ Caron followed with a sacrifice fly to score
Michael Pavelchak. Matt Goehirg, the hero from Thursday night, kept his heroics going, hitting a two-run homer to make it a 4-0 game. It was his second home run of the tournament and he his the only player to homer in the tournament.
On the mound,
Justin Portes cruised through the first three innings, but the Lightning struck in the top of the fourth with four runs of their own, including an RBI single by Darin Miller and an RBI double by Braden Kolansberger that tied the game.
Derek Duval came in relief with the bases loaded and two outs and got Kyle Walker to pop out to end the inning.
Post got its lead back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single from
Jimmy Brennan to score
Evan Cornwell, who doubled to lead off the inning.
Hunter Keller gave the Eagles a bit of insurance with an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth.
Duval kept the Lightning's bats at bay in his outing, pitching 5.1 innings, striking out four and allowing just one earned run on four hits.
In the bottom of the sixth, with one out and the bases loaded,
Danny Gill ripped a double over the centerfielder's head, clearing the bases. Post added one more to make it a 10-4 game.
In the ninth the Lightning got a two-out single, but the Eagles would win with arguably the defensive play of the year as Caron crashed into the wall in left field on a ball hit by Marlon Lindsey.
Brennan finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs. He is now 9-for-13 in the CACC Tournament. Gill was 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run. Pavelchak was 1-for-4 with two runs.
If the Eagles win both games, the Eagles will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA East Regional tournament for the first time in program history.
