Quinnipiac baseball hadn’t mustered a lead in either of the first two games of its season-opening series at Liberty this weekend, dropping both by a combined score of 26-7. Despite that, the Bobcats found the advantage twice in Sunday’s series finale, only to collapse in a six-run seventh inning and leave Virginia winless, falling 10-5.
Working from behind yet again thanks to a pair of Flames’ runs in the first two innings, sophomore outfielder Gabe Wright brought home senior infielder Matt DeRosa with a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third.
The Bobcats’ bats kept churning into the next inning, where freshman shortstop Kyle Garbowski hammered the ball over the right field fence for a three-run home run.
The Connecticut native was not in Quinnipiac’s opening day lineup, but an injury to starting shortstop Dominick Proctor early in that game forced Garbowski — who now has three hits in three games — to step up.
“He’s picking up the spot right now really well,” Quinnipiac head coach John Delaney said to the ESPN broadcast. “He’s getting comfortable, huge swing there for him.”
The Bobcats’ early play was no doubt influenced by an audible boost in energy in the dugout compared to the previous two games. Even when a two-run homer from Liberty freshman catcher Macaddin Dye evened the game at four, the visitors kept up their screaming and shouting, allowing them to retake the lead three innings later.
“It’s been one of the things that I’ve been harping on the past couple days with them,” Delaney said. “We have to be high energy, we can’t be up and down, we can’t play off the scoreboard, we can’t play off our at bats, we have to stay the same all the time.”
Senior catcher Keegan O’Connor singled to drive home Wright in the seventh inning after Wright advanced to third on a failed pick-off attempt.
But once again, Quinnipiac’s lead quickly evaporated. After three and two-thirds innings of four-hit, four-run ball from sophomore RHP Aaron Zenus, the Bobcats went to the bullpen.
Graduate student LHP Jack Kabel got out a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning, then junior RHP Ryan Hutchinson did the same in the sixth. But with the bases loaded again in the seventh, freshman RHP Raymond McNaught took the mound, and Liberty took advantage.
The Flames shelled McNaught and sophomore LHP Matt Alduino for six runs in the inning, turning a one-run lead into a five-run hole for Quinnipiac. The Bobcats managed no hits in the two innings following Liberty’s flurry, dropping the game 10-5 and the series in a sweep.
