Late comeback not enough for baseball

Late comeback not enough for baseball

By Giovanni Mio, QBSN Staff Writer

After scoring five runs in the bottom of the ninth on six straight walks and a wild pitch, Quinnipiac (3-26, 2-14 NEC) still didn’t have enough to beat Rhode Island (17-14), as it fell 8-6 at the QU Baseball Field Tuesday afternoon.

courtesy: quinnipiacbobcats.com

Trailing 8-1 entering their final half-inning, the Bobcats started to play the patient game and wait for their first strike. Fortunately, Ram freshman pitcher Brendan Doonan couldn’t find the plate, throwing 11 straight balls that resulted in three walks.  Doonan got pulled for junior Matt Young who walked two more Bobcats consecutively before being pulled for junior Mike Bradstreet.

“The game is never over,” said head coach Dan Gooley. “We used pretty much our entire bullpen, and that was what the game was decided on.”

Three of the five runs in the half-inning came from RBI walks. The other two were scored on a single from sophomore catcher Christopher Caldari (Planview, N.Y.) and a wild pitch.

Gooley will go for his 500^th career win a 14^th time as the Bobcats will host NEC rival Mount St. Mary’s for four games this weekend at QU Baseball Field, starting Friday at 3 p.m.

“We have solid good line pitching,” said Gooley. “We competed and battled back, and when you do those types of things, you can win on an everyday basis.”

Rhode Island took an early 5-0 lead after two innings, rocking Bobcats freshman starter Matthew Lorenzetti (Marlboro, N.J.). The next four relievers that came after Lorenzetti shut out the Rams for the next six innings.

                                                 

“There were five left-handers out of nine on the card today, so it was a perfect situation for [Matt] DeRosa to come in to,” said Gooley. “The kid [Kevin] Adler struggled a little bit today, but if we played better defense, we would’ve came out of the inning only giving up one run.”

Sophomore pitcher Kevin Adler (Marietta, Ga.) pitched the ninth inning for the Bobcats and gave up two earned runs to Rhode Island.

Freshman Vincent Guglietti (East Haven, Conn.) hit his first career home run that was the first run scored for the Bobcats in the game in the bottom of the seventh.

“He’s swung the bat pretty good well throughout the year,” said Gooley. “He’s got good power, he’s young, and is learning how to handle pitching at this level. That really is a big difference.”

Liam O’Sullivan, the Ram starter, gave up only one earned run in six and a third innings of work and recorded his third win of the season. He’s 3-0 with a 2.92 ERA this year.