By: Ryan Chichester
Follow @RyanChichester1
Abilene Christian University (ACU) celebrated the start of the baseball season by breaking out the brooms, at the expense of the Quinnipiac men’s baseball team.
The Bobcats were swept out of Texas by the Wildcats as ACU finished the sweep with an 11-2 rout on Sunday afternoon. After battling until the last out in the first two games of the series, the Bobcats had no answer for a Wildcats lineup that used a pair of four-run innings to cruise to an easy win.
The sweep marks the first time the Bobcats have started a season 0-3 since 2014, when they dropped their first six games.
The Bobcats will head to Virginia next weekend still searching for their first win, but they showed plenty of fight. A 10-4 laugher on Friday became a 10-9 nail-biter after the Bobcats scored five runs in the ninth, but came up just short of a miracle comeback. They fell behind on three different occasions on Saturday and came back to tie the game each time before the Wildcat bullpen shut the door in the late innings.
Of course, it’s awfully early in the season to reach any conclusions on what to expect from the Bobcats this season, but there were some early observations to take note of:
Early rotation trouble?
The opening series was particularly unkind to Bobcats’ starting pitching, as Taylor Luciani was tagged for seven earned runs over four innings in Friday’s season opener. Brandon Shileikis then put the Bobcats in early trouble by allowing three earned runs through the first two innings on Saturday. The Bobcats fought back in both games to cut the deficits to just one run, but the holes dug by Luciani and Shileikis were too deep to climb out of.
Junior Tyler Poulin took the loss on Sunday, but his troubles were brought on by an erratic defense behind him, as the Bobcats were throwing the ball all over the place in the early innings. Liam Scafariello, Evan Vulgamore and Julius Saporito all committed throwing errors that led to five unearned runs.
Poulin didn’t do himself any favors by allowing five hits over four innings while walking four, but for a Bobcats team that ranked second-to-last in the MAAC in runs per game last year, the pitching and defense will have to improve if they are to stay in ballgames. Again, it’s only been one series, so some rust may still need to be shaken off.
After all, ACU committed 1o errors of its own this weekend.
Batting without Batten
As just mentioned, the Bobcats struggled to put runs on the board last season, and it will be tougher to rectify that without Matthew Batten, who batted a team-best .305 last season before graduating. The gaping hole he left behind at shortstop was filled by underclassmen Dylan Lutz and Ian Ostberg, who struggled at the plate in the opening series.
Lutz handled shortstop duties through the first two games and went 0-9 with four strikeouts, but did drive in a run in the series opener. John Delaney elected to try Ostberg at short on Sunday, and the freshman went 0-3 with a strikeout.
Both were solid with the glove this weekend, but Delaney and the Bobcats could use any form of offense from the shortstop position this season, as Batten left behind a lot of hits that somebody needs to replace.
Table setter
Looking on the bright side, the Bobcats still have their leadoff man in sophomore Andre Marrero, who laced a pair of leadoff doubles over the weekend while reaching base in all three games. His three-hit performance on Friday tied a career-high for the young outfielder who is proving to be a valuable bat at the top of the order.
Marrero, who batted .370 over the final nine games of the 2017 season, could become one of the most reliable bats in the Bobcats’ lineup in 2018. He’s not going to run rampant on the basepaths like Mike Palladino last season, but he could provide a consistent presence on the bases and give sluggers like Scafariello a chance to drive in more much-needed runs for the Bobcats.
