QU Baseball Falls To Bradley, Belmont; Batten Collects Six Hits In Doubleheader

Saturday, March 7

E.S. Rose Park - Nashville, Tenn.

10 am

Quinnipiac University

2-4

Bradley

3-6

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Quinnipiac	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	4	12	2
Belmont	3	4	0	0	4	0	0	3	X	14	14	3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Quinnipiac	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	5	1
Bradley	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	X	3	8	0

QU Baseball Falls To Bradley, Belmont; Batten Collects Six Hits In Doubleheader

3/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Box Score 1: Bradley 3, Quinnipiac 1
Box Score 2: Belmont 14, Quinnipiac 4
Season Stats
Quinnipiac Baseball Homepage
MAAC Baseball Standings

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The Quinnipiac University baseball team lost to Bradley, 3-1, and Belmont, 14-4, to drop to 2-4 on the young season. Belmont improves to 3-6 on the year while Bradley improves to 8-2 on the season.

Sophomore Matthew Batten (Shelton, Connecticut) pieced together a solid day, going 6-for-9 for the split double-header, including a 4-for-5 afternoon against Belmont, with a double, a RBI and a run scored. As a freshman in 2014, Batten became the second first-year Bobcat in program history to reach the 50 hit mark. Batten's second hit of the day against Bradley, in Quinnipiac's first game of the afternoon, was Batten's 60^th of his career, coming in his 55^th career game.

In the first game, Thomas Jankins (West Brookfield, Massachusetts) took the loss to drop to 1-1 on the season after giving up two runs on six hits over five innings. Matthew Lorenzetti (Marlboro, New Jersey) came on in relief of Jankins, hurling two scoreless innings while scattering two hits. Sophomore Gregory Egan (Seldon, New York) pitched the eighth, giving up a single unearned run to Bradley in the loss.

At the plate, Batten was 2-for-4 and scored the Bobcats' lone run on an RBI single by Lou Iannotti (North Haven, Connecticut) in the bottom of the sixth. For the day, Iannotti, currently batting a team-best .350 for the year, was 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base. Scott Donaghue (Marlboro, New Jersey) was 1-for-4 while freshman Julius Saporito (Manalapan, New Jersey) recorded his first collegiate hit with a lead-off double in the fourth.

Bradley got on the board first when Isaac Smith hit a one-out solo home run to left center off of Jankins to put the Braves on the board in the fifth inning. Tyler Leffler then doubled home Chris Godinez to give Bradley a 2-0 lead. In the top of the sixth, the Bobcats got a run back when Iannotti's two-out single up the middle scored Batten from second with the Bobcats' only run. Bradley added a run in the bottom of the eighth to give the Braves a 3-1 lead. Quinnipiac went down in order in the top half of the ninth to end the game.

In the Bobcats' afternoon tilt against Belmont, Mike Palladino (Rockville Centre, New York) led off the game with a double down the right field line before moving to third on a ground-out by Saporito. Palladino, who finished the day at 2-for-4 against the Bruins, capitalized on a wild pitch by Belmont's Aaron Quillen and scored Quinnipiac's first run. In the bottom half of the inning, Belmont responded with three runs, as a result of three doubles, off of Quinnipiac starter Justin Thomas (Enfield, Connecticut). The Bobcats got a run back in the top of the second when Brian Ruditys (Boothwyn, Pennsylvania) stroked a two-out single to right. He went to second on an error and then went to third when Saporito walked before Batten drove him in with a single to second to cut Belmont's lead to 3-2.

The Bruins tacked on four runs in the bottom of the second to jump out to a 7-2 lead, knocking Thomas from the game in favor of freshman Taylor Luciani (Berlin, Connecticut), who navigated through the rest of the inning. Luciani pitched 1 1/3 of scoreless ball before handing the ball off to the Bobcats' bullpen. Four Bobcats – Robert Hitt (Suffield, Connecticut), Charlie Murray (Charlton, Massachusetts), Mike Davis (Sandy Hook, Connecticut), and John Bodenhamer (Maple Valley, Washington) pitched the final 5 1/3 innings. Davis ate most of the innings for Quinnipiac, logging 2 1/3 innings while holding the Bruins scoreless on one hit while striking out two.

Quinnipiac pushed two more runs across, with Batten scoring in the fifth and Vin Guglietti (East Haven, Connecticut) scoring in the seventh.

Quinnipiac is back in action on Sunday, Mar. 8 when it faces Bradley at 11 a.m. and Belmont at 6 p.m. at E.S. Rose Park in Nashville, Tennesse.