Saying Mason Ulsh had his stuff on Saturday would be an understatement.
The junior right-hander twirled seven innings of one-run ball as Quinnipiac rolled past Canisius 6-1. Ulsh struck out ten Golden Griffins — a new career high — and his confidence seemed to balloon with each one.
But it didn’t start smoothly.
On the second pitch of the game, leadoff hitter Kenny Dodson launched a towering home run to left, giving Canisius an early 1-0 lead.
“First inning obviously didn’t go as planned,” Ulsh said after the game. “But from the second inning on, I was on all my pitches, got ahead in the count and was able to get gassed up.”
And the Bobcats evened things up soon after. Center fielder Gabe Wright got ahold of a slider in the bottom of the second and crushed a solo blast of his own, knotting the game at one run apiece. It was Wright’s first homer at the Division 1 level.
“Oh, he was happy as ever! We were happy for him,” said senior outfielder Jared Zimbardo. “I think he’s gonna have many more to come in the next month.”
The 1-1 game then gave way to a pitching dual between Ulsh and Canisius’s ace Justin Guiliano. Both starters were dealing, punching out batters left and right.
Quinnipiac finally got to Guiliano in the bottom of the fifth. First-year Spencer Chard and Zimbardo led off the inning with back-to-back knocks. Keegan O’Connor stepped to the plate with a golden opportunity. But Guiliano jammed him, forcing a soft chopper to third. Third baseman Trent Rumley gloved it, stepped on the bag to get Chard and fired a dart to first for the twin killing.
“We were in a chance to kind of break it open and then hitting into the double play, that hurts,” head coach John Delaney said. “But the mentality didn’t change in the dugout…we just missed an opportunity. We got to move past that and then win the next opportunity.”
Christian Smith did just that. He hooked a line drive to right field that brought in Zimbardo to take a 2-1 lead, driving Guiliano out of the game.
From there, Ulsh kept dealing. He dominated his final inning, striking out the side in the seventh and stranding the tying run at third base. Quinnipiac then finally gave Ulsh some breathing room when it tacked on three runs in the bottom of the inning.
Canisius reliever Ethan Hennessy then plunked back-to-back Bobcats with the bases loaded to make it a 5-1 ballgame heading into the eighth.
The outing marked Ulsh’s second straight start of seven innings. He tossed seven scoreless in his last outing on the road against NJIT in a game the Bobcats eventually dropped in extras. Ulsh said he really wanted the ball in the eighth inning, but understood he had played his role.
“My back wasn’t feeling the greatest [during the seventh],” he explained. “So I just did my job today and gave it to the rest of the guys to finish it off.”
Zimbardo tacked on another run in the eighth, launching a solo shot to left that bounced off the top of the wall to pump the cushion to five. He had a monster day at the plate, going 3-for-4 and finishing just a triple shy of the cycle.
“I’m going to do what I can to win every pitch. That’s all it is.” Zimbardo said. “It’s not about necessarily crushing every pitch you see, but if you’re trusting your approach and you know you can’t get beat you’re going to run into more balls.”
“Right now, Zim is becoming a much better overall hitter. He’s always been a guy that’s had a lot of hot hitting,” Delaney said. “Now he’s stretching himself and trying to be a lead guy at the top of the order and he’s drawing walks now, he’s got a consistent average right now.”
With the win, Quinnipiac claims the series and will look to go for the sweep tomorrow. Delaney and the Bobcats aren’t letting that make them any less competitive.
“You got to play every game as one game. This is a winner-take-all day,” Delaney said. “That’s the message to the guys walking out there tomorrow…We gotta realize that we have a battle ahead of us and they’re gonna come up with a different mentality.”
The final game of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday. A win would bring the Bobcats to .500 in MAAC play for the first time this season.
