Last February, Quinnipiac baseball was pinned second in the 2024 MAAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll. By the time May rolled around, the Bobcats were in the bottom half of the conference and playing under .500.
“There’s definitely been a shift in the mentality and I think that as a unit everyone’s bought in,” graduate student first baseman Sebastian Mueller said. “The culture is different this year and it’s kind of a different buzz around the team than there was last year.”
From the outside, it seems like the right season to rebuild a shaken roster and even sneak up on some stronger MAAC teams along the way.
“(The team last year) it wasn’t the best dynamic,” junior RHP Matt Alduino said. “But this year, with all the transfers that we’ve gotten, they’re all great guys. I believe that this could be our year.”
Roster deep dive
Heading into 2025, the Bobcats have gone through major roster turmoil, losing roughly 20 players in the offseason to graduation or the transfer portal.
The portal is a great mechanism for larger schools, but it tends to wreak havoc across mid-major organizations such as Quinnipiac who lose highly talented players to those bigger and more successful programs.
The Bobcats are out graduates OF Jared Zimbardo, (Notre Dame, ACC) INF/RHP Sean Swenson (VCU, Atlantic 10) and 2023 NEIBA All-New England First Teamer, catcher Keegan O’Connor (Kansas State, Big 12).
The largest jump is Zimbardo to Notre Dame, following a very similar path to Anthony Donofrio ‘24 who transferred to UNC and is currently a 10th-round pick by the Seattle Mariners.
Zimbardo’s reputation precedes him, as he led Quinnipiac in batting average (.353), hits (67) and slugging percentage (.579) last season.
O’Connor was arguably one of Quinnipiac’s best, batting .321 in four years in Hamden and posting a .982 fielding percentage behind the plate. Replacing a catcher is not an easy job, but the Bobcats have a promising two in redshirt freshman Cole Constable or junior Christian Smith.
The Bobcats did dabble in the portal themselves over the summer, grabbing three players from Maryland after senior INF Dominick Proctor transferred and became a Terp himself.
Juniors INF Alex Irizzary and OF Luke Zeisloft should also fill some gaps in Quinnipiac’s lineup or stand as future focal points in the program.
Also dawning the navy and gold for the first time will be sophomore RHP and Xavier transfer Griffin Seibel and graduate INF Johnny Knox of Nichols.
Knox, who made the transition from Division III to Division I, batted .419 for the Bison in 2024 and recorded 75 hits to earn him numerous accolades, including a spot on the 2024 ACBA/Rawlings All-American Second Team.
Analyzing the current roster, the Bobcats do not have a young group, only bringing in six freshmen. So as much as this season should serve as a reset for Quinnipiac, 2026 likely will too.
Losses aside, the Bobcats did hold on to a handful of assets. Junior outfielder Gabe Wright had an integral role in 2024, batting .228 in his 38-hit season.
Additionally, Mueller returns from a labrum injury after a stellar start to his senior campaign.
“I feel good,” Mueller said. “Arm feels good. I think about arm injuries that a lot of times like the rehab you probably overlook parts of arm care. I feel better now than I was before I got hurt.”
The Bobcats also have a unique pair of infielders this season, freshman twins Ian and Christian Nilsen. Prior to college, the nationally recognized brothers played under the region’s No. 1 baseball travel program, The Clubhouse.
As for the rotation, they have eight guys to shuffle around, most notably Alduino and senior Mason Ulsh. Last season, it was clear that pitching was an area Quinnipiac needed to hone in on for next year. Well, next year has arrived.
“We lost a lot of arms just to the transfer portal and then along with graduation, so we kind of rebuilt over the summer and changed our perspective on how we want to go about the season,” Alduino said. “We sat down at the beginning of the fall and we just talked about how we didn’t want to repeat last year.”
Alduino was a huge reliever for the Bobcats in 2024 with a 3.90 ERA in 30 innings. Ulsh on the other hand, snagged 74.1 innings with a 7.63 ERA. Also fighting for a starting slot are offseason standouts sophomore utility player Nick Balcom and junior RHPs Josh Lajoie and Andrew Rubayo.
Schedule analysis
To be blunt, Quinnipiac does not have an easy start to the season. The Bobcats kick off 2025 with a 10-game road trip, spending the first few playing UNC Wilmington and Georgia — a top-10 program in college baseball.
“I think kind of why you play college sports is to play the best,” Mueller said. “So I think for our team to play the best teams in the country right out of the gates, I think it’ll be a good test and I think a lot of fun.”
MAAC opening day for Quinnipiac doesn’t begin until March 7 when it hosts Iona for a three-game series.
Aside from a few wild card non-conference matchups — CCSU, UConn, Yale, UMass Lowell and URI — the Bobcats continue the rest of the season with MAAC contests, which should ultimately be their focus anyway.
The Bobcats did take two out of a three-game series against incoming MAAC squad Merrimack in 2024 but fell 8-7 in their single game against conference newcomer Sacred Heart University.
As for the rest of the MAAC, well, things were bleak. Quinnipiac was swept by conference juggernauts Rider and Niagara, while also losing two out of three to the almighty MAAC champion Fairfield.
“We feel really strongly that we’re going to compete really well with it,” Mueller said. “I think with all the transferring and everything, no one knows what to expect.”
After severely underperforming in 2024, Quinnipiac should at the very least be shooting for a winning record. Because if the Bobcats aren’t predicted to take the MAAC, they should aim to measure up to whoever will.
Head coach John Delaney did not respond to requests for interviews
