Quinnipiac baseball enters the 2026 season off the back of a successful 2025 campaign, with head coach John Delaney leading his team to a program record 17 MAAC wins. The conference tournament brought more, as Quinnipiac made its way to the lower final before falling 7-3 to the top-seeded Rider Broncs.
The Bobcats’ success was led by their offense, leading the conference in batting average, at .305, and 74 home runs. The team will be without former Bobcat and batting average leader infielder CJ Willis ‘25 and home run leader third baseman Sebastian Mueller ‘25. Along with two of their top producers, Quinnipiac faces the loss of 10 other athletes from last season. Despite the losses, the Preseason MAAC Poll has the Bobcats at third.
Though Willis and Mueller are gone, most of Quinnipiac’s offensive pieces return to Hamden for another season.
Junior infielder Kyle Garbowski, senior infielder Alex Irizarry and senior catcher Christian Smith are all back, the three Bobcats finishing second, third, and fourth, respectively, in batting average behind Willis. Smith, who batted .329 and finished with a team-lead tying 15 home runs, was named to the Preseason All-MAAC Team.
Garbowski and Irizarry also did significant damage at the plate last season. Garbowski batted .331, with 81 total hits, good for a joint second place in the conference. Meanwhile, Irizarry hit .330, led the team with a .642 slugging percentage and hit 15 home runs, tying Smith and Mueller.
“I think that the key to success at the plate is focusing on winning one pitch at a time,” Garbowski said. “Making the next batter’s at-bat more important than yours by being selfless at the plate.”
For the Bobcats, each batter was important last season, as eight players batted .300 or higher, seven with 65 or more hits.
While the offensive attack will likely be spearheaded by Garbowski, Irizarry and Smith, top-down success at the plate, as Quinnipiac had last season, will be extremely beneficial for further triumph.
If the Bobcats want to make a regional run, though, pitching must be in lock step with hitting. While the team recorded the second most runs in the conference, with 449, falling only behind Fairfield, the conference champions, they also surrendered the third most runs, with 442, and the most walks, with 340.
However, some of their key arms will also be returning. Senior starting pitcher Mike Poncini threw 52 innings of work over a team-leading 14 starts, finishing with a 4-1 record, team runner-up 5.37 ERA and team-leading opposing batting average of .220.
“I’ve mainly focused on improving my command this season,” Poncini said. “I feel more comfortable heading into this season. My arm feels the best it has in years, and I have a lot of confidence in my abilities.”
Also returning are two solid bullpen pitchers, sophomore J.C. Franconere and senior Matt Alduino. Franconere had a team third-best 5.54 ERA in his 30 appearances, while Alduino finished second on the team with 4 saves over a second-most 58.2 innings pitched.
While Quinnipiac looks like it has the pieces, full-season consistency is needed. The Bobcats’ last season lost out on scoring as potentially high as the No. 3 seed in the tournament and earning a first-round bye in their last two weekends.
Against Siena and Sacred Heart, the two teams that ended up jumping Quinnipiac, the team went 2-4. The losses dropped it to No. 5 in the tournament and into the play-in.
The 2026 season has already kicked off with an out-of-conference series with Old Dominion and North Florida. In both series, the Bobcats went 1-2.
Quinnipiac will then play two more series with ETSU and UNC Greensboro before starting MAAC play on Friday, March 13, against Sacred Heart at 3 p.m. in Hamden.
