The Quinnipiac Bobcats fell short of a comeback win against the Marist Red Foxes after leaving the bases loaded to end the game 8-7.
“You just can’t give up,” head coach John Delaney said. “No matter what the score is, you have to be able to battle back. This is not going to be the last time we are going to have to battle back from a three or four run deficit.”
Marist carried a 1-0 lead into the top of the third inning. Marist first baseman Steve Laurino came to the plate with men on first and second and only one out. Laurino hit a line drive to Quinnipiac shortstop Matthew Batten, who dove for the catch and tossed the ball to second to end the inning and keep the score where it was.
Quinnipiac took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Batten led off the inning with a bunt base hit. Two batters later, catcher Louis Iannotti got Batten in with a bunt of his own. Delaney said that Batten’s work ethic has led to some of these impact plays with the glove and bat.
“He is one of the hardest workers we have on the team. He comes here with the attitude to want to get better everyday. That’s why he has had a lot of success this year,” Delaney said.
After Marist’s Graham McIntire tied the game up with an RBI groundout in the top of the fifth, Batten hit a line drive single to right field to bring in Scott Donaghue in the bottom of the inning.
First baseman Vince Guglietti led off the sixth with a towering blast to right field to extend the lead to 4-2 before Donaghue hit an RBI double to give Quinnipiac the 5-2 advantage in the seventh.
Marist climbed back in the late innings. The team kicked off the eighth inning with three consecutive singles, the last of which went for an RBI off the bat of Matt Pagano. Tyler Kirkpatrick hit a sacrifice bunt to shrink the Quinnipiac lead to 5-4.
Quinnipiac brought in Gregory Egan for the top of the ninth. With a one-run lead. Pagano hit a ground ball to second with one out and two runners on. Donaghue threw the ball to Batten for the force out, but the infield was unable to convert the potentially game-winning double play as Batten threw the ball short of Guglietti.
Kirkpatrick was next to the plate and hit a two-run blast to left field to give Marist the 7-5 lead. Joey Aiola cushioned Marist’s lead by hitting another home run the following at-bat.
After a strikeout to start the bottom half of the inning, Quinnipiac strung together four straight base hits off of Marist submarine pitcher Ryan Thomas. Batten hit the last of those four to bring the score to 8-6.
After Guglietti popped out to shortstop, Iannotti took a hit-by-pitch with loaded bases and two outs to bring the deficit down to one. Designated hitter Matthew Oestreicher ended the game with a groundout to Laurino, who took the ball to the bag himself to end the game and cement Marist’s 8-7 win.
With the defeat, Quinnipiac lost the weekend series 2-1 after splitting a double header on Saturday. Quinnipiac now stands with a 20-20 overall record while 11-7 in conference play. Delaney says the team needs a short memory in order to move on from the loss.
“We have to go out there and win league games. We just need to play good baseball,” Delaney said.
