John Delaney’s tenure as head coach of the Quinnipiac Bobcats baseball team got off to a rearing start. From the 2015 season to the 2019 his squad won at least 10 games per season in MAAC play and also earned a trip to the conference tournament thrice.

However, since the pandemic, its been a different story, as they’ve only made the conference tournament once.

That is not the case this year, as the team sits 13-5 in conference, as of publication, with 12 games left to play. Delaney has never won more than 17 games within the MAAC, giving the 2025 Bobcats a serious opportunity to set that record.

The recipe for the Bobcats’ success is no secret: their hitting. There is an abundance of stats to cite, but perhaps none more impressive than leading in both their .309 batting average and their 49 home runs this season.

There’s not even just one sole bat responsible for this damage. You can find quality at-bats up and down the Bobcat lineup. Shortstop Alex Irizarry and catcher Christian Smith have batted fifth and sixth, respectively, over the last several games. They have each hit 10 home runs thus far this season, with Irizarry tacking on 14 doubles, while Smith sports a .345 batting average and 45 runs batted in.

Furthermore, the impact of the heart of the order cannot be understated.

First baseman Kyle Garbowski has done a great job as the table setter, sitting third in hits with 45 hits and fourth in runs with 42. Longtime Bobcat third baseman Sebastian Mueller is having the pinnacle of his career in Hamden. He’s got a team leading 11 long balls, slashing an impressive .336 batting average, .473 on-base percentage  and .629 slugging percentage.

Then there’s CJ Willis, who had a slow start to his senior year after transitioning to right field, but is now ablaze. He is tied with Smith in RBIs, putting the Bobcat pair at second in the conference. Since MAAC play began, his statistics have soared in batting average (.447), on-base percentage (.511) and slugging percentage (.921).

This Bobcat lineup is perfectly balanced between transfers and homegrown talent. Garbowski, Mueller and Smith have been in Hamden since high school, while Irizarry, Willis and graduate student Johnny Knox have come out of the portal.

Knox is a scrappy second baseman, in his first year at Quinnipiac, who plays hard-nosed defense and grinds through at-bats from the bottom third of the order. Despite the differences in the genetic makeup of this team, Knox is loving what will be his final season in collegiate baseball.

“You can’t beat the group of guys we have,” Knox said. “(We’re) a lot of older guys, who have came in or have already been here. I feel like a lot of us just already know this is our last run and we are going to make the most of it.”

For as extraordinary as the bats have been, it is their pitching that truly determines games. The average earned run average of the MAAC as a whole is 6.61 as of April 21. Quinnipiac has a mediocre 7.01 ERA as a staff, putting them in the middle of the road at seventh place.

Taking 6.61 as the boundary line, if the Bobcats hold their MAAC opponent to less than that number, they’ve excelled, going 11-1. On the contrary, for games that they’ve allowed seven or more runs, they are a pedestrian 2-4.

The Bobcats are going to swing themselves into games, and with just under half the conference slate left to go, it will be upon the pitching staff to, at the very least, be average enough to let the hitters earn notches in the win column.