The Quinnipiac Bobcats took on the defending MAAC champion Rider Broncs in their first game of conference play and game one of a doubleheader on Friday, March 22.
Aaron Zenus took the mound for Quinnipiac to start the first game and pitched a 1-2-3 first inning. Trouble came in the top of the third when Rider left fielder Kyle Neri walked, shortstop Matt Leahy reached on a fielder’s choice and both were driven in on a home run by third basemen Joe Tiroly. Zenus was pulled from the game after four innings.
Manager John Delaney said that Zenus “looked really good, fastball looked good, he was attacking hitters, throwing his slider for strikes and he kept guys off balance.”
The sixth saw more runs for the Broncs as two singles by Neri and center fielder Matt Shepherd, a sac fly from Leahy, and a double from third-baseman Jack Winsett pushed the lead to 8-0.
The Bobcats pulled two back in the bottom half of the sixth with a Keegan O’Connor double and later scoring on a pick-off attempt to first that ended the inning with Kyle Garbowski being tagged out in between first and second.
Rider extended their lead in the eighth when Matt Shepherd was hit by a pitch, Matt Leahy scored on a double play and Brian Skettini singled up the middle.
The Broncs showed why they won last year’s MAAC title and when asked if the Bobcats considered this before the game Delaney said, “Rider is a good team no matter what, so we didn’t talk about the past… we just had to play better baseball.”
The game ended as an 11-3 rout of the Bobcats, and they would look to improve for the second half of the doubleheader. When asked about the team’s sloppy play in game one, Delaney said “We were just bad, bad energy, bad focus, bad team at-bats, it was just bad, it was not a brand of baseball that I want to watch, not one that we expect.”
Game 2 started with more of the same for the Rider as Jack Winsett singled and was driven in on a single by first baseman Luke Lesch in the top of the first.
The Bobcats responded in the bottom half when Jared Zimbardo scored on a Kyle Garbowski groundout and Christian Smith hit a two-run homer over the left field fence, scoring Keegan O’Connor who had reached on a single earlier. The score was 3-1 Quinnipiac after the first inning.
“He’s had a good approach at the plate, he’s taking good swings at the right pitches and he’s been productive for us,” Delaney said of Smith after the game.
Two straight walks knocked Quinnipiac starter Jack Kabel out of the game and Rider took the lead back on a Matt Leahy three-run home run and added another on an errand throw by second baseman Gabe Wright to first base, which scored Matt Shepherd. This made the score 6-3 in favor of the Broncos.
The Bobcats took a run back in the bottom half on a sacrifice fly by Matt DeRosa, scoring Sean Swenson. Rider extended their lead in the fourth inning on a single by Kyle Neri, scoring Luke Lesch.
Christian Smith singled for Quinnipiac to start their end of the fourth and was driven in on a home run to left center by Sebastian Mueller to make the score 7-6 Rider. In the top of the eighth Justin Costanzo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to extend the Rider led to 8-6.
In the top of the eighth, Sebastian Mueller walked to start and was driven in by Braydon Seaburg on a home run to tie the game at eight.
“You expect older guys to rise up,” Delaney said of his team’s resilience. “When the (big) moment happens you expect it to be in eight or the ninth but in reality, those moments happen in the first and second.”
The game looked destined for extra innings, but Matt Shepherd led off the ninth by getting hit by a pitch and Jack Winsett singled sending Shepherd to third. Brian Skettini stepped up to the plate and capitalized, hitting a three-run homer just around the left-field foul pole.
“Skettini was a guy that had one plan on his mind and that was to win the game for them and he smashed a three-run homer and won the game for them,” Delaney said. “He was locked in, he wanted the moment and he showed up to it, we have to do a better job of showing up to those moments over the course of the game.”
Brian Young worked a scoreless ninth to close the game out for the Broncs. The Bobcats will try to salvage a game in the series on Sunday with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
