After a day-of-game time change, rain delay and a less-than-ideal start, the Quinnipiac baseball team played its best version of late-game heroics to defeat NJIT 12-7 Friday.
If someone had told all of the fans at the Quinnipiac baseball stadium and fans watching online that the Bobcats would end up scoring nine runs in their final two turns at bat, everyone would have thought that person was crazy, except the roughly 42 staff, coaches and players in the dugout.
Five runs, Four errors and one two-run home run spelled a nightmare for the Bobcats after the top of the third inning.
As the defense got the third out, right fielder Gabe Wright knew that something needed to change. Being in right field, Wright has the longest jog back to the dugout.
It was in that jog and the moments before that something needed to be said, or it was going to be a long baseball game. Wright is not the most vocal on the team, just ask his coaches and teammates.
“I felt like at that time people would really listen,” Wright said. “We are a lot better than the way we were playing in all aspects.”
When head coach John Delaney saw this, he knew that it was only a matter of time before Wright would step into his leadership role.
“Guys are afraid to say stuff to hurt feelings,” Delaney said. “We know how hard we work. So our work ethic allows us to say things when things are not going right because there is a trust.”
The script had completely switched. From that moment on, the Bobcats scored at least one run in every inning, except the bottom of the fourth inning.
A key part of that offensive explosion did not have to do with the typical big name hitters like Jared Zimbardo or Keegan O’Connor, but a man that is brand new this season to the Bobcats squad.
His name? Dominik Proctor.
Transferring in from Bryant and Stratton (NJCAA), Proctor went down early in opening weekend against Liberty, but has just recently been put back into the lineup and keeping his bat hot.
In four at bats, the junior from Dumfries, Virginia had three hits, brought two batters in and started the scoring output with the first run of the game off what was his first home run of his career with the Bobcats.
It was Proctor’s second game with two RBIs and one of his most productive games of the season today. In the past, he has been playing tight and has not been getting the barrel of his bat in front of pitches. Today, that all changed.
Not so much playing it like a baseball game, but more like a wiffleball game.
“I just want to win so badly,” Proctor said. “I want to help these guys out in any way that I could.”
The momentum started coming back toward Quinnipiac during the middle three innings. When Kyle Bardowski stepped up to the plate at the bottom of the seventh, things turned for the worst for the Highlanders.
“It all happened so fast,” Wright said. “I just like how we came together. We didn’t even look up at the scoreboard. We just went out there and hit the ball hard.”
Ten hits on nine runs and all of the momentum came to Quinnipiac in the bottom of the seventh and eighth. It was the gift that kept on giving.
“I don’t even have a favorite moment,” Wright said. “It also helps when the person in front of you is doing well too.”
After snapping a two game losing skid, the Bobcats are starting to find their groove as they continue on through their last weekend of non-conference baseball.
“I can’t be the voice all the time,” Delaney said. “Seeing that piece click in which was the reason why there was confidence. There was a buy-in from the group.”
Quinnipiac and NJIT get two more chances to get back in the win column against each other, the first one coming roughly 24 hours after the first game ended. First pitch is at 7 p.m. in Little Falls, New Jersey in Yogi Berra Stadium.
