On a chilly Saturday afternoon, the Quinnipiac baseball team took on the Fordham Rams for its second matchup in a three-game series. The Ram’s smothering start put the Bobcats in a hole that they couldn’t get out of, falling 6-4. 

Following a quick one-two-three top half of the first inning by the Bobcats, the Rams got to work quickly. With two runners in scoring position, freshman infielder Daniel Bucciero doubled on a fly ball to right-center field to give his team a 1-0 lead. 

The offensive outburst continued as senior infielder Will Findlay ripped a line drive over Bobcats senior third baseman McGwire Tuffy, for a bases-clearing double to make it 3-0 Rams. Findlay later scored on a wild pitch and the Rams took a 4-0 lead into the second inning. 

The Bobcats were aggressive in the batter’s box, swinging early in the count, however, they couldn’t find a hole, and graduate student pitcher Tim Blaisdell, who struggled the inning prior, would be back on the bump with little rest. 

For the next three innings, Quinnipiac began to find its rhythm. Blaisdell wouldn’t allow another run until the bottom of the fifth inning and the Bobcats scraped together two runs. Redshirt junior infielder Sean Swenson scored on a fielder’s choice play and freshman catcher Christian Smith drove in a run with a single to left field. 

After the first-inning nightmare for Blaisdell, he settled in and pitched six innings of one-run baseball. The Wethersfield, Connecticut, native didn’t allow a walk in his outing and struck out three. 

Both teams’ offenses remained quiet for the next two innings while the defenses were stout. Fordham broke through in the bottom of the eighth inning after graduate student infielder Peter DeMaria barrelled a ground-rule-double to the left-center gap, driving in Bucciero to make it 6-2. 

Down by four runs heading into the final inning, Quinnipiac made it interesting. Despite its record, it has a never say die attitude. With two runners on and no outs, Swenson laced a two-run double down the left field line, cutting Fordham’s lead in half. The Bobcats continued applying pressure, but the last two batters were rung up on strikes to the low outside corner. 

Coming into the weekend, the Rams were 0-10 on the season and have now picked up their first two wins of the season against a struggling Quinnipiac team that has lost five in a row. The Bobcats finish the series in New York tomorrow at noon and look to break their losing streak.