Video by: Robyn Brown
Article by: Ryan Chichester
After a last-minute postponement of the Quinnipiac baseball team’s scheduled home opener last Tuesday, the Bobcats went back on the road to extend their tiring streak of 20-straight road games to start the season. The weary travelers are likely itching to get back home to Hamden after this weekend’s disappointing finish.
Stony Brook swept Quinnipiac over the weekend, dropping the series by a combined score of 24-7. After being swept by UNCW over spring break, the Bobcats will limp into Rhode Island on Tuesday with a six-game losing streak.
Here are some observations from a tough weekend for John Delaney and company:
Shileikis settling in
Let’s start on the bright side. In our last series recap, we discussed the importance of graduate student Brandon Shileikis and his search for consistency. After an up-and-down start to the season on the mound, Shileikis has now thrown three-straight quality starts, including a six inning performance on Saturday in the middle game of the series at Stony Brook. Shileikis surrendered just three earned runs in the outing, but a couple costly errors and a lack of offense dulled Shileikis’ promising start.
Shileikis took the loss, but the promise remains. In his last three starts, Shileikis has allowed just eight earned runs in 20 1/3 innings (good for a 3.58 ERA), while striking out 15 in his last two appearances. If Shileikis can stay the course, the Bobcats could have a solid rotation of Taylor Luciani, Tyler Poulin and Shileikis to take the hill once conference play begins later this week.
Another power bat emerging?
Senior Ben Gibson’s two-run home run was tucked away in the middle of a 10-4 blowout loss, but with a Bobcats team searching for some more power, Gibson’s newfound power stroke could come as a promising sign.
With his home run, Gibson now leads the team with four dingers (after only hitting three all of last season), and his .475 slugging percentage is second only to Brian Moskey, who jumped out to a big lead after his torrid start to the season.
The Bobcats currently own a team slugging percentage of just .350, and will need some consistent pop somewhere in the lineup if they are to be successful in conference play. That means other unexpected contributors (meaning someone not named Moskey or Liam Scafariello) will have to step up. An experienced upperclassman like Gibson could be the answer for Delaney. While Gibson isn’t going to spray the ball all over the field (he’s batted under .200 the past two seasons), he could still provide a much-needed home run with runners on when the team is looking for an offensive boost. Hopefully for the Bobcats, Gibson’s power stroke sticks around.
Vulgamore comes back down to earth
One of the headliners in the last series recap was the red-hot bat of Evan Vulgamore, who started the season on a 12-game hitting streak, and recorded a multi-hit game in three of the last five.
The flames on Vulgamore’s bat have been temporarily extinguished.
After an 0-11 performance in the Stony Brook sweep, Vulgamore has now gone hitless in seven of the last eight games, dropping his average from .347 to .240. The Bobcats faced some tough pitching at UNCW, but after another frustrating weekend, Vulgamore’s struggles are clearly something more.
Could Vulgamore’s current sophomore slump be a result of bad luck? Sure, he labored through an awful day in UNCW where he struck out three times in four at-bats, but has not struck out any other time during this tough eight-game stretch. Vulgamore is putting the ball in play but not finding holes, which is usually the definition of a baseball slump, where all the hitter can do is just keep swinging away and hope for the fortunes to turn. For Vulgamore and the Bobcats, they hope for those fortunes to turn sooner rather than later, as Vulgamore has proven vital to the Bobcats’ offensive success.
