University of Connecticut Athletics
Quinnipiac Rallies to Top UConn, 13-9
4/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
HAMDEN, Conn. (April 21, 2005) - The University of Connecticut baseball team fell to Quinnipiac by a score of 13-9 on Thursday afternoon in Hamden, Conn. The Bobcats rallied with a five-run seventh inning to take the victory and tally their ninth-straight win. UConn has dropped nine of its last 12 and is now 22-16 overall, while Quinnipiac moves to 14-13.
Junior Austin Wasserman (Nashua, N.H.) led off the game with a homerun over the right field wall. The homer was his second of the season and gave UConn an quick 1-0 lead.
Quinnipiac then jumped ahead, scoring five runs in the bottom of the first to go up 5-1. The runs came off of junior Nick Tucci (Medford, Mass.), who made his first appearance for the Huskies since being sidelined with Tommy John surgery last year. He had not pitched in a game since February 29, 2004 when he started the third game of the season for UConn. Tucci, who was on a limited pitch count, had a tough first outing, throwing one inning with five runs on five hits, a walk and a strikeout. Tucci was then relieved by senior Jeff Hourigan (Beacon Falls, Conn.), who started the second inning.
The Huskies battled back to cut Quinnipiac's lead to 5-3 in the second as Wasserman collected his second and third RBI of the game on a single through the right side to score sophomore Matt Untiet (Berlin, Conn.) and junior Steven Malinowski (Kensington, Conn.).
UConn's bats then exploded for six runs in the top of the fourth as the Huskies took a 9-5 lead. Freshman Pat Mahoney (Des Moines, Iowa) led off the inning with a double down the left-field line, with Malinowski and Wasserman drawing walks to load the bases. Junior Bryan Maler (Ansonia, Conn.) then took the third base on balls of the inning to bring home Mahoney. Mallozzi hit into a fielder's choice that got Maler out at second, but scored Malinowski and Wasserman to give the Huskies a 6-5 lead. Freshman Vin DiFazio (Hampton, N.J.) followed with a single to left center that moved Mallozzi to third. With two runners on, sophomore Josh Farkes (Boston, Mass.) blasted his first homerun as a Husky and the second homerun of the game to push UConn's lead to four.
That would be the last time the Huskies would score though as four Quinnipiac pitchers combined to shut out UConn over the next five innings.
The Bobcats began their rally in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs to cut the Husky lead to one at 9-8. Brien Magee hit a three-run homer of his own to put Quinnipiac back into the game.
Quinnipiac then pulled into the lead once again, scoring five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to go ahead 13-9. Kevin MacIlvane and John Delaney each registered two-run hits in the inning to spring the Bobcats back into the lead that they would hold to take the win.
Hourigan picked up the loss for UConn to move to 4-2 this season. He allowed eight runs on nine hits with two strikeouts and no walks over 5.1 innings pitched. Junior Joe Smeraglino (Shelton, Conn.) threw the final 1.2 innings with just one hit. Paul Gibson got the win for Quinnipiac.
Wasserman and Farkes each notched two hits in the game with three RBI. DiFazio also went 2-for-5 with a run. Mallozzi went 0-for-4 to snap a seven-game hit streak, but scored a run and drove in two. Malinowski tallied two runs in a 1-for-3 performance. Overall, the Huskies drew eight walks in the game, but were out-hit 15-9.
Connecticut will next travel to Piscataway, N.J., to face Rutgers in a three-game BIG EAST series April 23-24. The two teams will play in a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday. Action begins at 12:00 p.m. on both days.
