The Quinnipiac baseball team cruised to a 7-0 victory over UMass Amherst on Wednesday afternoon at the Quinnipiac Baseball Field, improving to 17-23 on the season. Explosive offense backed by exceptional pitching allowed the Bobcats to secure the victory.

“We got the good pitching, we swung the bats, and we put up the runs and we played good defense” Quinnipiac head coach John Delaney said.

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The Bobcats’ starting pitcher, Brandon Shileikis, pitched six scoreless innings, striking out two and only allowing one hit. This was Shileikis’ second straight win and he has only allowed six runs total in the eight games he has pitched in.

“Getting out to a lead always helps, it always gets everyone fired up” Shileikis said.

Quinnipiac jumped on the scoreboard early, tallying three runs on four hits in the bottom of the first inning.

It was not until the third inning when Quinnipiac struck again. Third basemen Joe Burns nailed a sacrifice fly to left field to bring one runner in, making the score 4-0 Bobcats.

Following another 1-2-3 inning from Quinnipiac, center fielder Brian Moskey hit a solo home run to deep left field to put the Bobcats up 5-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Moskey went 3 for 5 at the plate with two RBIs on the day.

“I’ve been feeling pretty good at the plate lately” Moskey said.

To start the seventh inning, Quinnipiac went with relief pitcher Justin Thomas, who did more of what Shileikis did for the Bobcats. Thomas only allowed two hits in two innings, while striking out two batters.

“The pitching is huge,” Moskey said. “I mean, we got nine guys on the field who can make great defensive plays, so it’s nice to be able to get strikes.”

In the bottom of the eighth inning Moskey struck again, hitting a one-run double to extend the lead to six. A few batters later, Rob Pescitelli drove a fly ball that brought one more runner in to make the eventual final score of 7-0 Quinnipiac.

The Bobcats brought in Matthew Osieja to close out the game on the mound in the ninth. He struck out two and allowed one hit as the Bobcats capped off the win.

Quinnipiac will play a conference doubleheader this upcoming weekend against Monmouth and hopes to bring some of the momentum from this game with them.

“It gives us confidence, it gives us momentum heading into the weekend,” Moskey said. “Conference play actually matters a lot more so it’s nice to go into a tough weekend.”