HAMDEN — The Quinnipiac Bobcats and the Niagara Purple Eagles met for their second of three meetings on Friday afternoon. Niagara took the first game 8-6 and the result today was the same, seeing the Bobcats fall 4-3.
“We’re just in a lot of tight games this year,” Quinnipiac baseball head coach John Delaney said. “I gotta think this is close to, I wanna say eight one run losses on the year. Like that’s a hard one to kind of swallow,” he continued.
Delaney’s point wasn’t quite on the money but the issue remains. The Bobcats have had six one-run losses on the year, with a few more being within two to three runs.
Niagara was able to get going early with junior infielder Rees Kozar notching an RBI triple to open the scoring against Quinnipiac.
The Bobcats found themselves with runners at first and second in the bottom of the second, when senior infielder Alex Irizarry took off for third. Junior pitcher Carter Fink fired to third, getting Irizarry out with no problem until a balk was called, eliminating the force out.
“We’ve done a good job in the last two weeks, especially in being really good in situational baseball,” Delaney remarked.
The situational practice paid off as the Bobcats loaded the bases where sophomore catcher Cole Constable got himself a sac-fly, leveling the score.
The tie did not last long, as Niagara’s Kozar once again found himself driving in a run, only this time he was thrown out at first.
Niagara went a run up again in the third, but the Bobcats kept on track with a run of their own in the fourth.
The fifth inning saw more action for Quinnipiac after some good pitching by senior pitcher Andrew Rubayo. Senior infielder Christian Smith hit a no-doubter over the left field wall getting the Bobcats first lead of the game.
Smith has a bit of a slow start to the year and found himself sidelined for eight games due to an injury before returning in late March. He quickly bounced back going 11-21 in five games earning MAAC Player of the Week with homers against URI and UConn.
“The injury was kind of a blessing in disguise,” Delaney said.
The home run was Smith’s fourth on the season, and his 17th RBI. Despite dealing with an injury early on in the year Smith is one of the guys Quinnipiac still relies on and delivers.
“He’s been swinging the bat well, I mean he’s a force in the lineup so it’s somebody that teams don’t want to face.” Delaney continued.
Similar to the Purple Eagles’ leads, the Bobcats one didn’t last long as senior infielder Curtis McKay sent a ball over the left field wall, leveling the score against senior pitcher Mason Ulsh.
Ulsh was able to finish the inning with no problem getting three strikeouts.
The bottom of the sixth saw more opportunities for Quinnipiac with runners at the corners, but they were unable to get the job done. The same could be said for the seventh inning as well as the Bobcats faced a new pitcher and got runners causing traffic but couldn’t bring any home.
In the eighth, McKay was back up to bat leading off and knew the first time was so nice, he had to do it twice, hitting another, nearly identical home run getting the lead back late in the game.
Unlike McKay, junior catcher Jason Green was not having a good day at the plate having struck out three times already. He was able to get a hold of an Ulsh pitch that could’ve been three home runs for the Purple Eagles, but was pulled just foul hitting the wall.
Between the contact and next pitch, catchers Constable and Green shared words but it’s unclear what exactly was said. As the ball was in the air Green took his time getting out of the batters box hoping to see the ball stay fair.
Constable got frustrated with Green and the two had to be separated by the home plate umpire before the situation boiled over. A couple pitches later Green went down for his fourth strikeout and Constable immediately talked Green back to the dugout.
“There’s a lot of fighting Cole and he’s kind of the body of armor at the end of the day.” Delaney said.
Despite hits throughout the game, the Bobcats were unable to get anything going late on as their run of form had begun to falter against Niagara.
Despite a fight for nine innings with good defense and good pitching, the Bobcats couldn’t get the better of the Purple Eagles. Quinnipiac will play its final game of the series on Saturday, April 4, hoping to pull one back in MAAC conference play. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m.
