It was a big day for the Quinnipiac University Bobcats at the plate as they dominated the Iona Gaels 12-3 on Friday. The name of the game was an offensive showcase along with a sprinkle of defensive highlights throughout.
The game would not get off to an ideal start for the Bobcats though, as pitcher Aaron Zenus started the game off with a walk on his second batter faced. This was followed by the ball moving Iona’s Jayson Gonzalez over to second. Zenus then gave up a double down the right field line to Iona first baseman James Kemp. This scored Gonzalez and put the Gaels up 1-0 early.
Carter Groen singled up the middle immediately after scoring Kemp to put the Gaels up 2-0. A throwing error on a pickoff attempt by Zenus later in the inning allowed the Gaels to steal two bases and end up at third. The damage stopped there though as Iona’s Anthony Zollo grounded out to third to end the top of the first.
Despite the struggles, Quinnipiac’s Keegan O’Connor still supported Zenus and the pitching staff as a whole for their efforts on the mound.
“Zenus didn’t have his stuff today, but I mean, he worked out of some big jams,” O’Connor said. “It was good Cubbey [Cubberly] come back in coming off an injury.”
The Bobcats answered immediately in the bottom of the first. Left fielder Jared Zimbardo hit a leadoff homer just two pitches into the bottom of the inning to cut the lead in half for Iona 2-1. O’Connor followed it up with a double on the next pitch to put himself in scoring position. Another double down the right field line for first baseman Christopher Willis scored O’Connor from second to knot things up two a piece.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Bobcats kept on scoring. With two outs and runners on first and second, O’Connor notched his second of three hits on the day which sent the ball into right-center field scoring Kyle Garbowski and Gabe Wright. This put the Bobcats firmly in front 4-2 and it was all smiles from that point on for the Bobcats dugout.
The Bobcats scored eight more runs to finish off with 12 and had five multi-run innings. Not only was this a show of dominance for the Bobcats lineup, but pitcher Sam Favieri said that the excellence on offense took a lot of pressure off the pitching staff.
“Oh, it’s huge. [the run support] It’s just like a comfort thing,” Favieri said. “But you gotta treat every inning like it’s 0-0.”
Favieri had an excellent day out of the pen himself. He went 5.2 innings in relief of Zenus, giving up only one run and striking out six.
The most underrated aspect of the offensive performance was the amount of patience at the plate and the ability to draw walks. The team walked 14 times today and the bottom of the lineup especially was reaching base at a high clip. Coach John Delany was very pleased with this element of the game.
“The bottom three guys in the order were on base 10 times,” Delaney said. “When the 7-8-9 guys have been on base we score 70% of the time. Those guys really got on base and allowed us to kinda open it up with our big guys.”
Time will tell if the Bobcats can keep up this momentum, as they look to win the series against the Gaels heading into the weekend.
