QU Baseball Drops Doubleheader At Seton Hall, 5-1 and 4-1

Saturday, April 2

South Orange, NJ

1 PM

Quinnipiac University

7-16

Seton Hall

19-8

Quinnipiac

Seton Hall

QU Baseball Drops Doubleheader At Seton Hall, 5-1 and 4-1

4/2/2016 8:28:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: QU Sports Information

GAME 1 BOX SCORE
GAME 2 BOX SCORE

SOUTH ORANGE, New Jersey – The Quinnipiac University baseball team lost both games of a doubleheader, 5-1 and 4-1, at Seton Hall in a non-conference twin bill at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, New Jersey. The Bobcats fall to 7-17 on the year while Seton Hall improves to 20-8 on the year.

Senior Matthew Batten (Shelton, Connecticut) was 3-for-8 in the doubleheader, including a 2-for-4 and a stolen base while also scoring the Bobcats' lone run in the second game of the afternoon. The Bobcats' shortstop has now hit safely in four-straight games in which he is hitting .438 (7-for-16). Lou Iannotti (North Haven, Connecticut) also hit safely in both games while he also drove in Batten in the second game. Iannotti leads Quinnipiac in average (.319), hits (29) and runs batted in (15) to date. Senior on-base wiz Rob Pescitelli (Bayshore, New York) reached base in half of his plate appearances, while also swiping a pair of bases to run his team-leading tally to nine stolen bases for the year. Pescitelli also leads the team with a .413 on-base percentage.

In the first game, Pescitelli was 2-for-4 with a stolen base while sophomore Ben Gibson (Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts) accounted for Quinnipiac's only run of the game with his team-leading fourth home run of the season. Gibson connected for five long balls as a freshman in 2015. Sophomore Taylor Luciani (Berlin, Connecticut) spun seven innings on the mound for the Bobcats, surrendering three runs on two hits.

In the second game, Quinnipiac threatened early as Batten led off the game with a single and moved to second on Julius Saporito's sacrifice bunt. Pescitelli drew a one-out walk before Seton Hall was able to work out of the jam. Batten would get things started again in the sixth with another lead-off single before stealing second and moving to third on a wild pitch. Batten scored the Bobcats' lone run of the game on Iannotti's RBI ground-out to second base.

On the bump, Justin Thomas (Enfield, Connecticut) took the loss after giving up four runs – three earned – on eight hits scattered across four innings. An error accounted for the Pirates' first run of the day, before Seton Hall worked to manufacture two more runs over the first two innings. Thomas worked through the next two innings, retiring six of the next seven batters he faced, with the seventh retired while attempting to steal second.

The Bobcats bullpen was dominant once-again, as closer Alex Vargas (New York, New York) scattered two hits over three innings while holding Seton Hall scoreless in his team-leading 10^th appearance of the season. Vargas, who leads Quinnipiac with four saves, has been dominant for the Bobcats this season, holding the opposing team scoreless in nine of his 10 appearances this year. Sophomore Robert Hitt (Suffield, Connecticut) pitched a scoreless eighth inning.

The Bobcats are back in action on Tuesday, Apr. 5 when they travel to Kingston, Rhode Island to take on the University of Rhode Island at 3 p.m. Quinnipiac's seventh road contest in a row marks the half-way point of a 14-game road trip. The Bobcats return home on Apr. 16-17 to host MAAC foe Iona for a three-game set at the QU Baseball Field in Hamden, Connecticut.