Thursday, May 24
Staten Island, N.Y. / Richmond County Bank Ballpark
12:00 PM
Quinnipiac University
vs
Canisius
Playoff Preview: Bobcats Ready for MAAC Baseball Championship
5/22/2018 7:25:00 PM | Baseball
#2 Quinnipiac (25-28, 16-8 MAAC) vs.
#3 Canisius (32-20, 16-8 MAAC)
at MAAC Baseball Championship
Quinnipiac Tournament Notes
Tournament Home Page: MAACSports.com
Live Video: ESPN+
Quinnipiac Baseball on Twitter: @TheQBaseball
Day + Time
First Game — Thursday (12 p.m.) vs. Canisius
Second Game — TBD: Thursday (7 p.m.) or Friday (12 p.m. or 3:30 p.m.)
Next Games — TBD
Location
Richmond County Bank Ballpark — Staten Island, N.Y.
• Related Post — QU's Bash Brothers Point to Baseball's Band of Brothers as Key to MAAC Success
HAMDEN, Conn. — The Quinnipiac Bobcats have already accomplished what they hadn't done since 2015, and they're aiming to accomplish what they haven't done since 2005.
Yes, baseball fans, it's playoff time!
The Bobcats are preparing for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference playoffs, officially known as the MAAC Baseball Championship, where they made their last appearance in 2015. The winner of the double-elimination MAAC Championship receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Quinnipiac's last trip to the NCAA Tournament was in 2005, when the program was in the Northeast Conference and Bobcats Head Coach John Delaney was a freshman on QU's team.
The MAAC Championship begins Wednesday — but you won't find Quinnipiac on the schedule because the Bobcats earned one of two first-round byes as the No. 2 seed, despite being picked to finish 8th in the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll. Their first game is Thursday at 12 p.m., in the second round against Canisius, which defeated Niagara 5-4 in Wednesday's opening round to advance to meet the Bobcats.
The Bobcats' second game in the double-elimination tournament will be either later Thursday at 7 p.m. or Friday at 12 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. The next games are, of course, to be determined.
The MAAC Championship game is slated for Saturday. The tournament will be held at Richmond County Bank Ballpark, the home of the Staten Island Yankees, a Class A minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees.
The top six teams in the 11-team MAAC make the playoffs. Quinnipiac (16-8 MAAC) was in first place until the final weekend of the regular season, but the Monmouth Hawks (16-7 MAAC) ended up atop the conference.
However, there is perhaps an asterisk attached to the Hawks' first-place finish. Their last regular season game, against Fairfield, was cancelled due to rain. If they had lost, they would have had a 16-8 conference record along with Quinnipiac and Canisius. In that scenario, since the Bobcats owned the head-to-head tiebreaker against both teams, they would have claimed the MAAC's regular season title and the No. 1 playoff seed. Since the top two seeds receive byes, though, the issue might be moot.
The Bobcats had sole possession of first place from the first weekend of the MAAC season until the next-to-last weekend. Then they were in a three-way tie for first heading into their final regular season series.
Before this year, the Bobcats' best MAAC season was a third-place finish in 2015, when they were 15-9 in the league. That was Delaney's first season as head coach, and their best league mark since they won the regular season Northeast Conference title in 2007, when Delaney was a junior standout on Quinnipiac's team.
Three sluggers lead Quinnipiac into the MAAC Baseball Championship. Senior Ben Gibson, junior Liam Scafariello and sophomore Evan Vulgamore are QU's Bash Brothers — they finished 1-2-3 in home runs in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this season.
Gibson led the MAAC with 18 home runs — in all games, both conference and nonconference. Scafariello was second with 13 homers, and Vulgamore was tied for third with 10. (Only two other MAAC hitters had double-digit home runs.) In conference games only, Gibson (11 HRs) led the way, Scafariello (9) was second, and Vulgamore (8) was alone in third.
In the nation, Gibson's 18 dingers are tied for 8th, and he's tied for 7th in homers per game (0.35).
Gibson established several Quinnipiac records this season.
He holds the Bobcats' Division I records for single-season home runs (18), single-season RBI (53, second in the MAAC this year) and career home runs (31). Meanwhile, his 18 homers are tied for Quinnipiac's all-time single-season record, including the program's Division II history. By the way, his 18th homer was a grand slam in the last game of the regular season.
Scafariello is in second place on Quinnipiac's career home run list (29). He actually held the career mark earlier this season, but Gibson finished on a tear — hitting five homers in the last six regular season games — to surge into the career home run lead.
Scafariello and Vulgamore are the only two MAAC players to finish in the top 10 this season (in all games) in home runs, RBI and stolen bases.
Scafariello had 13 home runs (second place), 42 RBI (seventh-most) and 10 stolen bases (tied for fifth-most). Vulgamore had 10 home runs (tied for third-most), 38 RBI (ninth-most) and 9 stolen bases (tied for sixth-most).
Every game of the MAAC Baseball Championship will be broadcast on ESPN+, which marks the first time that each tournament game will be aired on an ESPN platform.
#3 Canisius (32-20, 16-8 MAAC)
at MAAC Baseball Championship
Quinnipiac Tournament Notes
Tournament Home Page: MAACSports.com
Live Video: ESPN+
Quinnipiac Baseball on Twitter: @TheQBaseball
Day + Time
First Game — Thursday (12 p.m.) vs. Canisius
Second Game — TBD: Thursday (7 p.m.) or Friday (12 p.m. or 3:30 p.m.)
Next Games — TBD
Location
Richmond County Bank Ballpark — Staten Island, N.Y.
• Related Post — QU's Bash Brothers Point to Baseball's Band of Brothers as Key to MAAC Success
HAMDEN, Conn. — The Quinnipiac Bobcats have already accomplished what they hadn't done since 2015, and they're aiming to accomplish what they haven't done since 2005.
Yes, baseball fans, it's playoff time!
The Bobcats are preparing for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference playoffs, officially known as the MAAC Baseball Championship, where they made their last appearance in 2015. The winner of the double-elimination MAAC Championship receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Quinnipiac's last trip to the NCAA Tournament was in 2005, when the program was in the Northeast Conference and Bobcats Head Coach John Delaney was a freshman on QU's team.
The MAAC Championship begins Wednesday — but you won't find Quinnipiac on the schedule because the Bobcats earned one of two first-round byes as the No. 2 seed, despite being picked to finish 8th in the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll. Their first game is Thursday at 12 p.m., in the second round against Canisius, which defeated Niagara 5-4 in Wednesday's opening round to advance to meet the Bobcats.
The Bobcats' second game in the double-elimination tournament will be either later Thursday at 7 p.m. or Friday at 12 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. The next games are, of course, to be determined.
The MAAC Championship game is slated for Saturday. The tournament will be held at Richmond County Bank Ballpark, the home of the Staten Island Yankees, a Class A minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees.
The top six teams in the 11-team MAAC make the playoffs. Quinnipiac (16-8 MAAC) was in first place until the final weekend of the regular season, but the Monmouth Hawks (16-7 MAAC) ended up atop the conference.
However, there is perhaps an asterisk attached to the Hawks' first-place finish. Their last regular season game, against Fairfield, was cancelled due to rain. If they had lost, they would have had a 16-8 conference record along with Quinnipiac and Canisius. In that scenario, since the Bobcats owned the head-to-head tiebreaker against both teams, they would have claimed the MAAC's regular season title and the No. 1 playoff seed. Since the top two seeds receive byes, though, the issue might be moot.
The Bobcats had sole possession of first place from the first weekend of the MAAC season until the next-to-last weekend. Then they were in a three-way tie for first heading into their final regular season series.
Before this year, the Bobcats' best MAAC season was a third-place finish in 2015, when they were 15-9 in the league. That was Delaney's first season as head coach, and their best league mark since they won the regular season Northeast Conference title in 2007, when Delaney was a junior standout on Quinnipiac's team.
Three sluggers lead Quinnipiac into the MAAC Baseball Championship. Senior Ben Gibson, junior Liam Scafariello and sophomore Evan Vulgamore are QU's Bash Brothers — they finished 1-2-3 in home runs in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this season.
Gibson led the MAAC with 18 home runs — in all games, both conference and nonconference. Scafariello was second with 13 homers, and Vulgamore was tied for third with 10. (Only two other MAAC hitters had double-digit home runs.) In conference games only, Gibson (11 HRs) led the way, Scafariello (9) was second, and Vulgamore (8) was alone in third.
In the nation, Gibson's 18 dingers are tied for 8th, and he's tied for 7th in homers per game (0.35).
Gibson established several Quinnipiac records this season.
He holds the Bobcats' Division I records for single-season home runs (18), single-season RBI (53, second in the MAAC this year) and career home runs (31). Meanwhile, his 18 homers are tied for Quinnipiac's all-time single-season record, including the program's Division II history. By the way, his 18th homer was a grand slam in the last game of the regular season.
Scafariello is in second place on Quinnipiac's career home run list (29). He actually held the career mark earlier this season, but Gibson finished on a tear — hitting five homers in the last six regular season games — to surge into the career home run lead.
Scafariello and Vulgamore are the only two MAAC players to finish in the top 10 this season (in all games) in home runs, RBI and stolen bases.
Scafariello had 13 home runs (second place), 42 RBI (seventh-most) and 10 stolen bases (tied for fifth-most). Vulgamore had 10 home runs (tied for third-most), 38 RBI (ninth-most) and 9 stolen bases (tied for sixth-most).
Every game of the MAAC Baseball Championship will be broadcast on ESPN+, which marks the first time that each tournament game will be aired on an ESPN platform.
Players Mentioned
Wednesday, May 27
Friday, May 08
Thursday, May 07
Sunday, May 03
