After the Quinnipiac baseball team lost its first two games against Sacred Heart, the Bobcats came back to split the series behind two strong pitching performances.
Freshman Alex Russow earned his first collegiate victory by pitching 8 1/3 scoreless innings out of relief in a 10-6 victory over the Pioneers on Saturday.
Todd DeFrancesco started the game for the Bobcats, but surrendered six runs on five hits before leaving the game with just two outs in the first inning.
Russow stopped the bleeding, giving up just four hits in 8 1/3 innings. The Bobcats trailed 6-5 in the top of the eighth when Mickey Amanti drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI double to left field. Brian Ullrich followed with a two-run single to left and Ben Farina had an RBI double to give the Bobcats a 10-6 lead.
Joe Poletsky and Amanti each collected their 100th career hits and Farina went 3-for-4 with four RBI in the win.
On Friday, Kyle Birdsall earned his first victory of the season for the Bobcats in an 8-2 win in the second game of a doubleheader. Birdsall gave up two earned runs on four hits, while striking out six batters in the complete-game effort.
Five different Bobcat batters drove in runs, while Amanti had two RBI and Ullrich had the only multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.
The Bobcats dropped the first two games of the series 8-3 and 11-1. On Thursday Michael Oskandy yielded eight runs, on eight hits in five innings for the Bobcats. Sacred Heart pitcher Chris Zaccherio retired the last 17 batters he faced for a complete game victory. Second baseman Hunter Phillips provided the Pioneers with some power, as he hit a grand slam off Oskandy to give them an 8-3 lead in the fifth inning.
In the first game of Friday’s doubleheader, Sacred Heart won 11-1 behind starter Jared Ballbach’s complete game. Ballbach kept the Bobcat’s off balance by only allowing one run off three hits in seven innings. Shortstop John Murphy went 2-for-5 for the Pioneers, driving in five of the team’s 11 runs. Farina drove in the Bobcats’ only run of the game with an RBI single in the third.
The Bobcats improved their record to 3-17 and 3-5 in the NEC and will pick up action again on April 6 when they host Brown at the Quinnipiac Baseball Field.
