We are now into our fourth week of Northeast Conference play and the Blackbirds are in the thick of things. After stumbling out of the gate 0-4 after one week of conference play, the Blackbirds have taken three out of four from Fairleigh Dickinson and split last weekend’s series with Sacred Heart, 2-2. The Blackbirds sit at 5-7 in conference play and are 5-3 in their last eight NEC games.

Seniors Kenny Cedel and Gerard Tingos had big games on Friday versus Sacred Heart. Cedel went eight innings strong allowing two runs while striking out nine. Tingos hit a grand slam in the second inning to give the Blackbirds a big early lead. Drew Walsh, Chris Kievit, Tito Marrero and Julian Castro all collected two hits each in the 10-4 win.

The game three victory featured a fine performance by freshman sensation Justin Topa. Topa was in total command before running into some slight trouble in the last inning of a complete-game 8-5 victory. Topa didn’t issue a walk and struck out 11 hitters en route to his third win of the season. Other weekend highlights were two home runs by Kievit, a two-run home run by Marrero as well as tape measure solo shot by Derek Stupski.

The Blackbirds will continue NEC play this weekend when we travel to Quinnipiac for an important four-game set. The starting rotation for the weekend will be: 

Friday Game 1: Kenny Cedel (LHP/Sr.)
Saturday Game 2: Adam Sauter (LHP/Jr.)
Saturday Game 3: Justin Topa (RHP/Fr.)
Sunday Game 4: Chris Franzese (RHP/Fr.)

If you want to follow the Blackbirds this upcoming season please visit our web site at: www.liuathletics.com/baseball  or you can also follow us on Twitter at LIU www.twitter.com/liubaseball.