Graduate second baseman Johnny Knox stepped out of the batter’s box and exhaled.
“Jump in the soup, Johnny! Jump in the soup!” hollered Dan Gooley, Quinnipiac’s director of operations, from the dugout. “Head down. See your bat on the ball!”
Quinnipiac trailed Merrimack 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth. Warriors’ center fielder Hayden Bond had put the Warriors on top with a three-run homer in the fourth inning off starter Matt Alduino.
Now, Quinnipiac was threatening with two outs. Junior catcher Christian Smith and senior right fielder C.J. Willis took their leads from first and second respectively as Knox stepped back into the box. On the mound, junior righty James Nichols looked in and got the sign.
Nichols wound up and came home. Knox loaded his hips back and pounced on a high changeup, crushing it high into the windy Hamden air and over the left field fence for a go-ahead three-run blast. With one swing of the bat, Quinnipiac re-took the lead 5-4. The Bobcats never looked back, holding on for an 8-4 win and their second MAAC sweep in as many weekends.
“We’re feeling pretty confident,” Knox said after the game, “It’s fun to hit in this lineup where I’m hitting towards the bottom and everyone else is doing their job in front of me.”
Knox has seen a power surge in the past two weeks. He homered twice at Niagara last Friday and has embraced his role as a leader in the lineup for the Bobcats. He says he’s made it a point to take younger players like first-year infielders Matt Park, Ian Nilsen, and Christian Nilsen under his wing.
“I’m a grad guy, so I’m here for one year, ” Knox said. “Just like being that older guy, being that presence and being energetic is really good to support the team.”
The bullpen was fantastic down the stretch. Andrew Rubayo, coming off a poor outing on Friday, threw three and a third scoreless innings and picked up the win. Griffin Seibel forced a double play on just three pitches after coming on in the eighth and Ryan Hutchinson was lockdown in the ninth, striking out the side. On the weekend, Quinnipiac’s bullpen posted a 3.21 ERA.
“When Hutch is going and he’s got his fastball in the zone and he’s got his slider, he’s arguably one of the best relievers in the league,” head coach John Delaney said, “We’ve seen glimpses of that throughout his career… he’s done a great job, especially this weekend closing out two games for us.”
“We know it’s the next guy up,” said Hutchinson. “You got three games in a weekend, only 10 guys throw. We need everyone, it’s a full hands on deck.”
Hutchinson and Rubayo have grown with each other in the Quinnipiac bullpen over the past three seasons and have been two of the best relievers in the MAAC this year. Rubayo has excelled as an inning-eating middle reliever (he leads all relievers on the team in innings pitched) while Hutchinson has been one of Quinnipiac’s best high-leverage arms to the tune of a team-best 2.21 ERA.
“[Rubayo] wanted the ball so badly today and he got it. He gave us three great innings and that’s just who he is. ” Hutchinson said. “Just having him lock down four, five, six innings every weekend is so huge for this team. It saves us depth and gets us a lot of wins.”
“We need guys to compete for us on the mound and Rubey’s done that consistently all season for us,” Delaney said. “He’s coming out of the pen twice a weekend now and still pitches on mid-weeks when we need him… it’s almost more important than a starter realistically because those middle innings are the innings that teams can kind of take over.”
The sweep puts Quinnipiac at No. 2 in the MAAC, just behind in-state rivals Fairfield. The Bobcats are 13-5 in conference play and boast the league’s top-rated offense. They lead the MAAC with a .303 average, a .891 team OPS, 46 homers and 294 runs.
“We have so many guys hitting RBIs and hitting over .300,” Knox said. “It’s just really fun to be in this lineup where pretty much everyone is a threat.”
The Bobcats have a big non-conference week coming up. They’re at home on Tuesday against Yale before taking on CCSU in a three-game home-and-home series over the weekend. Yale beat Quinnipiac 8-2 earlier in the year over in New Haven.
“I don’t want that game to be close on our turf,” Delaney said.
The first pitch on Tuesday is slated for 3:00 PM.
