The Quinnipiac baseball team lost its 18th game of the season against an offensively dominant Brown squad on Tuesday. Brown managed to crush three balls for home runs against Bobcat pitching in their 12-6 victory.
Quinnipiac pitching struggled all day against the Brown attack. Of the four pitchers that made it to the mound, only junior Andrew Rinaldi was able to not allow any runs. None of the pitchers saw more than three innings of work.
Brown smacked the pitching staff around for a total of 16 hits on the afternoon. Seven of their 12 runs came in an offensive outburst in the third inning. The inning opened with Brown’s Graham Tyler drilling a solo homer over the left field fence. Tyler made his presence known throughout the game, going 3-5 with four RBIs.
Two batters later, Pete got all of a Derek Lamacchia fastball and sent it for a ride over the center field fence, increasing Brown’s lead to 5-0. By the time Lamacchia left the game with one out in the inning, the lead had jumped to 8-0. Lamacchia was replaced by Neil Mammlee after 2 2-3 innings of work. He was charged with seven earned runs off nine hits.
Quinnipiac head coach Dan Gooley was especially disappointed with his starting pitcher’s performance.
“We came off the two-game win streak against Sacred Heart and I thought we had developed some serious momentum there,” Gooley said. “I think Lamacchia is better than what he showed out there. He just threw too many bad pitches and Brown made great contact. That’s a very good hitting team we faced this afternoon.”
Sophomore Chris Migani was one of the few bright spots for Quinnipiac in the loss. The second baseman went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, including a home run.
“That’s what I expect from him all the time,” Gooley said. “I wouldn’t necessarily expect him to hit a home run every game, but I expect him to get two, maybe three hits. Migani is a Dustin Pedroia player. He always has been and always will be for me. He’s a hard-nosed kid, he loves to play the game, and he’s got talent.”
Although they were down 12-1 by the seventh inning, the Bobcats had a small rally late in the game. They managed three runs in the bottom of the seventh, two of which came from Migani’s two-run shot. Quinnipiac threatened to come back in the bottom of the ninth, but a fantastic grab with bases loaded by Josh Feit dashed any hopes of a comeback.
Gooley was proud of his team’s effort in the loss.
“We never give up, we’ll battle every pitch win, lose, or draw,” Gooley said. “That kid in right field just made a great play with the bases loaded. That ball gets in and three runs come home and all of a sudden its 12-9.”
Although Quinnipiac was able to produce late in the game, they had trouble finding any offensive rhythm off Brown starting pitcher Matt Boylan.
Boylan pitched five impressive innings before being pulled. Although he hit three Bobcats (Mike Bartlett and Gabe Guerino twice) and walked three others, Boylan held QU to only one run on three hits. He also fanned five hitters, four of which watched the third strike pass them by.
“The morale has been easy to keep up because these guys are easy to work with,” Gooley said. “They love to play, and frankly, they keep themselves up.”
The Bobcats travel to Hanover, N.H. to take on another Ivy League opponent, Dartmouth, on Wednesday at 3 p.m. The team will be looking for their fourth win of the season against the perennially powerful Big Green.
