Baseball is back in Hamden. The Quinnipiac baseball team had their home opener on their brand new turf field against the Merrimack Warriors on a rainy, dreary Saturday on March. 2.
The new field is important to the players but there is more to it as coach John Delaney stated. “Every time you step on this field, you’re playing for the guys that were here before, the guys that allowed us to have this facility.”
The team came into Saturday’s game coming off a 14-8 win over Presbyterian last Sunday. They looked to move the winning streak to two games and that they did but it didn’t come easy.
It was a defensive showdown through six innings and then the scoring got started. Merrimack’s Christian Gemelli earned the walk early in the inning, then Hayden Bond got hit by a pitch and an Alex Haba hit that Matt Derosa misplayed led to an error moving Gemelli around the diamond to home plate for the first run of the afternoon.
Quinnipiac would strike right back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh inning. Keegan O’Connor scored the two runs after Sean Swenson was hit by a pitch and first year Kyle Garbowski.
Garbowski had a strong day getting on base in four of his five at-bats. He had one single, two walks and was hit by a pitch. “He’s grown,” said Delaney, “he’s really got no nerves if you see him, he’s not a high and low guy.”
Going into the eighth inning Quinnipiac was ahead over the Warriors 2-1. Neither team was able to bring anyone around the diamond with both ending the inning with two runners on base.
The ninth inning was where the bats started to get hot. In the top of the ninth Merrimack needed at least one run to extend it to the bottom of the ninth and they were able to do so. Quinnipiac had some pitching struggles, “at the end of the game, we just lost command of stuff and we gave them options” said Delaney.
Three Merrimack runs later, the Bobcats were now the ones who needed to come up clutch when it mattered. Entering the bottom of the ninth inning it was a 4-2 game with Merrimack looking like they had control.
After starting on the mound for the first two innings and performing well, Sean Swenson, who only gave up one hit and no runs, stepped up big time on the offensive side of the game. Swenson hit a two-run homer to bring the game even at four apiece. Then with a Braydon Seaburg walk and an error that moved him to second base. It was Domonick Proctor’s time to shine.
Proctor had the chance to secure the first win of the season on home turf and he made sure to do that. He hit a single down the right-field line which allowed Seaburg to run his way to home plate and the Bobcats went rushing out to celebrate with Proctor.
“He’s got experience, he’s been in college baseball,” said Delaney, “You saw no nerves with him at the plate, he was trusting himself, trusting his at-bats.”
The Bobcat’s next game will be on Sunday, March. 3rd in a doubleheader with Merrimack with the first game starting at 1 p.m.
