Walk-Off Magic Strikes Again as QU Baseball Edges Hartford 6-5 in 10 Innings

Tuesday, April 24

Hamden, Conn.

3:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

19-20

Hartford

14-24

Hartford

Quinnipiac

Walk-Off Magic Strikes Again as QU Baseball Edges Hartford 6-5 in 10 Innings

4/24/2018 6:36:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: QU Athletic Communications

Bruce Deckert | QU Athletic Communications

SCORE
Quinnipiac 6, Hartford 5 — 10 innings

RECORDS
Quinnipiac — 19-20, 10-2 MAAC
Hartford — 14-24, 8-4 America East

LOCATION
QU Baseball Field — Hamden, Conn.

HAMDEN, Conn. — Walk-off magic visited the QU Baseball Field again Tuesday as senior Julius Saporito's base hit in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Quinnipiac Bobcats a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over the Hartford Hawks.

The Bobcats rallied from two-run deficits twice in the contest — first in regulation to force extra innings at 3-3, and then in the 10th inning after Hartford took a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th on a two-run homer.

In the bottom of the 10th, however, Quinnipiac had an answer.

With one out sophomore Andre Marrero singled to left field, and junior Brian Moskey singled to right as Marrero raced to third. A wild pitch brought Marrero home and sent Moskey to second, and the Hawks' lead was down to one run. Bobcats slugger Liam Scafariello, who hit a solo homer in the sixth inning, was walked intentionally.

One out later, with Quinnipiac down to its last out and the tying run at second, sophomore Evan Vulgamore tied the game 5-5 with an RBI single to right center as Scafariello scampered to third. Up stepped Saporito, who followed with his single to right center, scoring Scafariello and giving the Bobcats a 6-5 victory.

A game-winning hit in the final at-bat has been a welcome friend for the Bobcats this season. On Sunday, April 8, Scafariello and senior Ben Gibson tag-teamed for their own walk-off magic, powering Quinnipiac to a doubleheader sweep of Monmouth at the QU Baseball Field. The final score of each game was 4-3, and the second game went 11 innings.

On Tuesday, the Bobcats opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning. Vulgamore doubled down the left-field line, Saporito's productive groundout moved Vulgamore to third, and he scored on freshman Colton Bender's RBI single to center field.

In the top of the sixth, Hartford took the lead. Senior Nick Campana hit a two-run homer to left field, and the Hawks added another run to go ahead 3-1. In the bottom of the sixth, with one out, Scafariello got a run back, blasting a solo shot to right center to bring the Bobcats within 3-2.

Clutch pitching kept the Bobcats close in the top of the eighth inning.

A walk and a double gave the Hawks baserunners on second and third with one out. Enter sophomore reliever Colin Donnelly. The 6-foot-1 left-hander induced an infield popout and then struck out Hartford freshman Drew DeMartino looking on a 3-2 curveball to strand the runners and keep the Bobcats within a run.

More drama was in store in the bottom of the eighth.

With one out, Moskey singled to left-center on an 0-2 pitch. The next batter was Scafariello, whose sixth-inning dinger tied Gibson for the MAAC lead in homers (nine apiece) — and Scafariello almost surpassed Gibson with a drive to left-center that would have been out of the park ... except for a leaping grab by Campana, Hartford's center fielder, who pulled the ball back over the fence.

Yes, the same Campana whose two-run homer gave the Hawks a one-run lead in the top of the sixth prevented a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, preserving Hartford's one-run lead.

But the Bobcats were undaunted and tied the game anyway on a play that was both fortunate and unusual. With two outs, Gibson walked on four pitches, sending Moskey to second base — but during the next at-bat, Gibson strayed too far from first base and was caught in a rundown. As he eluded immediate capture, Moskey sprinted all the way from second and scored just before the Hawks tagged Gibson for the final out of the inning.

So the score was 3-3, and that's how it stayed until the 10th inning, when Hartford junior Ashton Bardzell's two-run homer was simply the prelude for more walk-off heroics by a resilient Quinnipiac baseball team.

Junior reliever Andrew Workman (2-1) got the win for the Bobcats, while junior reliever Seth Pinkerton (1-3) took the loss.

In addition to Scafariello and Saporito, Moskey (2-for-5, two runs) and Vulgamore (3-for-5, game-tying RBI, run) paced the QU offense.

GAME NOTES
With the win, the Bobcats can say they've solved the puzzle of the Hawks, who defeated Quinnipiac in the teams' previous two meetings this season — 12-11 on April 5 and 8-2 on April 10. Both games were at Fiondella Field, the Hawks' home in West Hartford.

Tuesday's contest featured two teams that are in first place in their respective conferences. Quinnipiac leads the MAAC with a 10-2 conference record, while Hartford paces the America East at 8-4.

The Hartford-Quinnipiac game on Tuesday at the QU Baseball Field was the first of nine straight home contests on the schedule, but that number is down to eight for now. The nonconference home game against the UMass Minutemen that was slated for Wednesday has been called off due to the weather forecast. There is no word yet on whether the game will be rescheduled.

NEXT UP
This coming weekend, first-place Quinnipiac will host Iona for a three-game MAAC series on Saturday (doubleheader, 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.) and Sunday (12 p.m.). Iona is in 10th place in the 11-team MAAC baseball standings.