Three days after the Quinnipiac baseball team exploded for 21 runs in a 11-run romp over Dartmouth, the Bears of New York Tech cooled off the Bobcat bats in a weekend twin bill sweep Saturday, winning 5-4 in nine innings and 9-4 in seven innings at Presidents Field in Old Westbury, N.Y.
Andrew Karkoulas and Tom Murray each drove in two runs and Joe Esposito (2-2) limited the Bobcats to four runs through six innings while striking out four in NYIT’s game one victory.
In that contest, Quinnipiac (12-16-1, 6-3 in NEC) stayed within striking distance despite falling behind early, 1-0, on an RBI single from Karkoulas in the first inning. But the majority of the damage done to Bobcats’ losing pitcher Chris Wakefield (2-2) came in the sixth.
After David Johnson led off the inning with double to right center, Murray chased Wakefield with a big two-run homer, putting NYIT in control at that point, 5-0.
The Bobcats, however, would rally with a four-run seventh, fueled by junior first baseman Peter Kummerfeldt’s first homerun of the season – a three-run shot – that cut the Bears lead to 5-3.
Quinnipiac had one more chance to tie the game in the ninth. After junior infielder Jeff Mainetti reached, then advanced to second on a Bears’ throwing error, NYIT reliever Eric Johnson ended the threat by retiring Kummerfeldt, Ricky Coppola and John Delaney in order to pick up his third save of the season.
Things got off to a promising start for Quinnipiac in the second game as the Bobcats raced out to 2-0 first-inning lead on RBI’s from John Delaney and Wilson Matos. In the third inning, junior outfielder Ryan Rizzo added to the lead with a solo homerun, making the score 3-0 Bobcats. It was Rizzo’s fourth homer and 20th RBI on the campaign.
However, the Bobcats ran out of gas through the next three innings. A two-run single by Joe Esposito and an RBI single from Mike MacMillan cut the Bears’ deficit to 4-3 in the fourth.
NYIT would take the lead for good in the fifth on a sac-fly RBI from Joe Esposito and a two-run double by David Johnson. MacMillan and Karkoulas added insurance runs to close out the scoring for NYIT in the sixth.
Bears pitcher Chris Perez (4-2) picked up the win with a three-strikeout effort in one-inning of work. Eric Weber (1-2) gave up three runs on four hits and took the loss.
For the series, Rizzo went a combined 4-for-7 with a homer while Kummerfeldt was 2-for-6 and a three-run blast. Delaney chipped in with three hits in a losing cause for the Bobcats.
Quinnipiac will look to get back to their winning ways today with a 3 p.m. contest against Brown University in Providence, RI. The Bobcats will resume Northeast Conference action with a weekend home series against LIU beginning Saturday at noon.
