QU Baseball Rallies but Runs Out of Magic, Bows Out of MAAC Tournament After Tough Loss to Monmouth

Friday, May 25

Staten Island, N.Y. / Richmond County Bank Ballpark

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

26-30

Monmouth

30-24

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Quinnipiac	0	0	0	0	4	4	0	0	0	8	13	2
Monmouth	0	5	1	0	1	1	1	2	X	11	13	2

QU Baseball Rallies but Runs Out of Magic, Bows Out of MAAC Tournament After Tough Loss to Monmouth

5/26/2018 12:39:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

By: QU Athletic Communications

Bruce Deckert | QU Athletic Communications

SCORE
Monmouth 11, Quinnipiac 8

RECORDS — REGULAR SEASON
#1 Monmouth — 28-23, 16-7 MAAC
#2 Quinnipiac — 25-28, 16-8 MAAC

LOCATION
Richmond County Bank Ballpark — Staten Island, N.Y.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Quinnipiac Bobcats took their final bow Friday night after a drama-filled season, but before the show closed they rallied once more. This time, however, the rally fell short and the magic ran out.

The Bobcats concluded their most successful MAAC season with an 11-8 loss to the Monmouth Hawks on Friday in the MAAC Baseball Championship at Richmond County Bank Ballpark in Staten Island, N.Y. For No. 2 seed Quinnipiac, it was the second loss in the double-elimination tournament, while No. 1 Monmouth advances to play No. 3 Canisius on Saturday for the MAAC Championship crown.

Monmouth opened the scoring emphatically in the bottom of the second inning, taking a 5-0 lead. The big blow was a three-run homer by sophomore Danny Long. The Hawks added an unearned run in the third to go ahead 6-0.

The Bobcats fell behind 5-0 in their first game Friday before rallying to defeat Siena in an elimination game, and with that result fresh in their muscle memory they staged another rally against Monmouth.

Quinnipiac scored four times in the top of the fifth inning to narrow the gap to 6-4. Junior center fielder Brian Moskey opened the frame with a double. Senior catcher Anthony Cruz, junior shortstop Kevin Huscher and senior first baseman Ben Gibson each had an RBI, and the other run was unearned. Then Monmouth scored once in the bottom of the fifth for a 7-4 lead.

The Bobcats were not to be deterred.

In the top of the sixth inning, they struck for four more runs to take an 8-7 lead. Sophomore left fielder Andre Marrero hit a two-run double, and sophomore second baseman Dylan Lutz's RBI single knotted the score 7-7. With two outs, Gibson's RBI single gave Quinnipiac the one-run lead.

But that would conclude QU's scoring, while Monmouth tallied one run in the bottom of the sixth inning, one in the seventh, and two in the eight for the 11-8 final.

Gibson capped a spectacular senior year by going 3-for-5 with two RBI. Lutz also went 3-for-5, with an RBI and two runs. Marrero went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run, while freshman catcher Colton Bender was 2-for-3 with two runs.

In a season full of stirring rallies, this one wasn't quite enough — but perhaps the memories it evokes of QU's come-from-behind victories in a riveting MAAC campaign will provide some solace for the Bobcats and their fans.

A CAMPAIGN MARKED BY DRAMATIC COMEBACKS AND HOMERS
In the Bobcats' earlier game Friday — versus Siena in a tournament elimination game — they staged a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings, and then finished the comeback on Gibson's game-winning double in the bottom of the 10th. Bender's clutch single in the ninth inning evened the score and sent the game to extras.

Prior to that, the Bobcats' most recent ninth-inning magic came last week (on Thursday, May 17) when Moskey broke a 5-5 tie in the top of the ninth with a two-run double en route an 8-6 win over Rider that gave QU sole possession of first place in the MAAC standings.

The week before (on Friday, May 11) junior Liam Scafariello hit a game-winning two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning that propelled QU to a 7-6 victory over Marist. The Bobcats had trailed 6-2 entering the ninth, but Gibson hit a three-run dinger to close the gap before Scafariello provided the exclamation point. The win kept QU alone in first in the MAAC.

Earlier this season (on April 8), Scafariello and Gibson tag-teamed for some walk-off heroics in a home doubleheader sweep of Monmouth that stretched QU's MAAC record to 6-0. Each player furnished a game-winning single — Scafariello in the Bobcats' last at-bat in the seven-inning first game, and Gibson in the bottom of the 11th in the second game. The final score of each contest was 4-3.

And later that month (on April 24), senior Julius Saporito came up clutch with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Quinnipiac a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over nonconference foe Hartford.

Meanwhile, Gibson and Scafariello end the year tied for the most career home runs in the Bobcats' Division I history, with 31 each. Gibson (a senior) led Scafariello 31-29 after the regular season, and then Scafariello (a junior) hit two homers in the MAAC Baseball Championship playoffs to pull even.

NEXT UP
For more details on Saturday's MAAC Championship final round, go to the MAAC Baseball Championship home page. Every game of the MAAC Championship is being aired on ESPN+.

PLAYOFF NOTES
• The winner of the MAAC Championship receives the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Quinnipiac earned the MAAC's No. 2 seed despite being picked to finish 8th in the league's Preseason Coaches' Poll. Before this year, the Bobcats' best MAAC season was a third-place finish (15-9) in 2015, which was John Delaney's first season as head coach. Quinnipiac's last trip to the NCAA Tournament was in 2005, when the program was in the Northeast Conference and Delaney was a freshman on QU's team. This year Quinnipiac (16-8 MAAC) was in first place from the MAAC's opening weekend until the final weekend of the regular season, but the Monmouth Hawks (16-7 MAAC) ended up atop the conference by one-half game (their regular season finale was canceled due to rain).

• Besides QU's Division I career home run record (see above), senior Ben Gibson established several other Quinnipiac records this season. He holds the records for D-I single-season home runs (18) and D-I single-season RBI (53, second in the MAAC this year). His 18 homers this year are tied for Quinnipiac's all-time single-season record, including the program's Division II history.

• Sophomore Dylan Lutz was injured on April 8 and missed the rest of the regular season, but he returned in stellar fashion for the MAAC Baseball Championship. In the Bobcats' three playoff games, Lutz went 7-for-15 with five runs and an RBI. While he manned second base in the playoffs, he played shortstop the first half of the season.

• Senior Ben Gibson, junior Liam Scafariello and sophomore Evan Vulgamore finished 1-2-3 in home runs in the MAAC regular season. Gibson had 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) was first, Scafariello (9) was second, and Vulgamore (8) was alone in third. In the nation, Gibson's 18 homers were tied for 8th, and he was tied for 7th in homers per game (0.35).

• Scafariello and Vulgamore were the only two players in the MAAC regular season to finish in the top 10 (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).