The Bobcats entered Saturday’s matchup against the Fairfield Stags, one game below .500, 21-22. They looked to winning the series on Saturday after winning the first game of a MAAC series at home on Friday, defeating the Stags 7-0. Entering the game in a tight playoff race, Quinnipiac entered the game as the No. 5 seed, and Fairfield as the No. 3 seed.
A dominant game from start to finish for the Fairfield Stags as they defeated the Quinnipiac Bobcats, 11-2. The Bobcats struggled early as the first inning started off on an error by third baseman Matt Park as he bobbled the dribbler twice. A few plays earlier, Matt Park with the wide throw to first basemen Kyle Garbowksi, but the play was ruled an infield single. Quinnipiac’s starter Nick Balcom would not have his best performance of the year as he gave up four runs and seven hits across three innings.
Into the bottom of the first as James Marino loaded the bases with a walk, a common occurrence on the day. The Bobcats showed patience in the batter’s box all day but couldn’t capitalize when it mattered the most. The next batter would be a strikeout looking for Payton Vancas on a 0-2 count as Fairfield would lead 2-1 after one.
Quinnipiac head coach John Delaney spoke on the team’s inability to score with runners on base despite the nine walks they earned on the day, “It’s a controlled aggression, you have to be smart with what you’re hunting, and we had weak swings in an advantage count.”
Fairfield would tally two runs in the second. The inning started with a standup double by Zach Stephenson, which led to runners on second and third. Two batters later, it was Matt Bucciero hitting a deep sac fly to right field as Fairfield would extend its lead to 3-1. The Fairfield bats came to play early after yesterday’s no-show as they led 6-1 after four innings.
Delaney spoke on the approach taken by the Stags bats on Balcom, “They were on him, he wasn’t getting many swing and misses today, they were on the barrel.”
The Bobcats pitchers struggled all day as James Pazdera came in to relieve Balcom and immediately gave up an RBI double to Bucciero. His red-hot start continued as the lead grew to 6-1.
Delany also spoke on his decision to put in Pazdera as the first pitcher out of the bullpen, “I felt like it was the right guy in that moment, nobody was really scheduled to go after him, and we were going to see how the game goes.”
Fairfield would later put up a four-spot against southpaw J.C. Franconere and right hander Josh Lajoie that led to a Jake Haarde single to right-center, as JP Kuczik and Matt Bucciero scored. A Ryan Paine single would put up the 11 th run of the afternoon as the Stags even out the series at one a piece.
The four bobcats’ pitchers allowed 17 hits, including seven doubles and 11 runs. However, both teams left 12 runners on base.
As Delaney looks ahead to Sunday, he mentioned, “Sami’s still out, so we are going to Belecky tomorrow, it’s all hands-on deck after that, it’s a due or die game mindset wise.”
With game one dominated by Quinnipiac and game two decided by Fairfield, the rubber match will be on May 3 at 1 p.m. With Sam Wright still out, Quinnipiac will rely on the first-year Komoka, Ontario, Canada native, Jacob Belecky, to have a robust performance against the Stags.
