Baseball Drops Pair of NEC Games, 4-2 and 1-0, To Sacred Heart

Saturday, April 2

12 pm

Quinnipiac University

11-8, 0

Sacred Heart

10-12, 0

Sacred Heart

Quinnipiac

Baseball Drops Pair of NEC Games, 4-2 and 1-0, To Sacred Heart

4/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Photos of QU-Sacred Heart Game

HAMDEN, Conn. - Quinnipiac University baseball junior Gabe Guerino (Milford, Conn.) drove in both Quinnipiac runs while Chris Migani (Orange, Conn.) collected four hits in a pair of losses to Sacred Heart, 4-2 and 1-0, in a Northeast Conference doubleheader in Hamden, Conn. With the losses, Quinnipiac drops to 11-9 overall and 7-3 in NEC play while Sacred Heart improves to 11-12 overall and 4-6 in league play.

Game 1 starter Derek Lamaccia (Whitestone, N.Y.) and Kyle Birdsall (Orange, Conn.), Quinnipiac's starter in the second game, pitched well, but not receive enough offensive support to pull out a victory on the afternoon. Lamaccia scattered 11 hits over 8 2/3 innings, while holding Sacred Heart to two runs, only one of which was earned in the loss. Sacred Heart held a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth inning when Guerino stroked an two-out offering from Sacred Heart hurler Chris Dioniso to right field to score Joe Poletsky (Riverside, Conn.) and Mike Bartlett (Milford, Conn.) to tie the game and force extra innings.

Andrew Rinaldi (East Rockaway, N.Y.), who entered the game having not allowed a run in his last 5 1/3 innings, was tagged for two unearned runs in the top of the 10th inning as he took the hard-luck loss to drop to 0-2 on the season. Migani was 3-for-5 in the first game while Poletsky and Ben Farina (Waterford, Conn.) each collected two hits.

In the second game, Birdsall stymied the Pioneer hitters for most of the seven-inning game before Sacred Heart was able to manufacture the game's only run it the top of the seventh inning. Birdsall gave up a single to Steve Tedesco to start the game before retiring the next nine batters he faced. Birdsall allowed just four bases runners over six innings before Hunter Phillips led off the seventh with a single. Phillips scored on a bases-loaded, sacrifice fly by John Murphy for the winning run.

Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart are back in action on Sunday, April 3 when they play the final two games of their four-game set, with the start scheduled for 12 p.m. The first game will be a seven-inning game, followed by a nine-inning game.