Baseball Travels To Long Island University For Four-Game NEC Series This Weekend

Second Half Kick-Off
The Quinnipiac University baseball team will head to Brooklyn, N.Y. to face the Long Island University Blackbirds in a four-game, Northeast Conference match-up at the LIU Baseball Field this weekend. Quinnipiac will kick-off the second half of their NEC schedule on Friday, April 15 at with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. consisting of a nine-inning game, followed by a seven-inning game. On Saturday, April 16, the Bobcats and Blackbirds will play a seven-inning game followed by a nine-inning game at 1 p.m.

Scouting The Blackbirds
Long Island is currently 16-13 overall and 8-4 in the Northeast Conference, good for second place in the league standings. Tyler Jones leads the Blackbirds with a .440 (44-100) average while leading the team in hits (44), runs scored (25), RBI (23), slugging percentage (.570) and on-base percentage (.540). Sam Sciamarelli is hitting .306 (33-108) with a team-best nine doubles. Drew Walsh has driven in 22 runs while clubbing one of Long Island's four home runs for the year. Matt McCormick is 3-1 with a 4.15 ERA in six games started, including two complete games. Justin Topa is 4-5 with a team-best seven starts and three complete games. He also leads the team in strikeouts (46) and innings pitched (43.2).

Birdsall's No-Hitter Earns National Recognition
Kyle Birdsall was named the CollegeBaseballInsider.com National Pitcher of the Week, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper/Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week as well as the Akadema/Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Week after hurling the first no-hitter in program history against Monmouth in a 6-0 win on Saturday, April 10. Birdsall was one of seven players honored nationally by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week.

He Racked Up The K's Too
Birdsall's 12 strikeouts against Monmouth in his no-hitter were a personal all-time best, as well as the most by a Northeast Conference pitcher this season.

All-Time Quinnipiac Akadema/Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Week Honors
Birdsall is the ninth Quinnipiac pitcher in NEC history to win Pitcher of the Week honors and the first since Alex Russow received the award on April 6, 2010.

Kyle Birdsall, 2011
Alex Russow, 2010
Andy Mayer, 2009
Chris Gloor, 2009
Pat Egan, 2004 (Three Times)
Buddy Bengel, 2003
Kevin MacIlvane, 2003
John Melillo, 2002
Buddy Bengel, 2001
Kevin MacIlvane, 2001

Consistent Front-End Pitching
Kyle Birdsall (3-1), Anthony Cinelli (3-1), Derek Lamaccia (3-2) and George Dummar (3-3) give Quinnipiac their most three-game winners at the midway point of its league schedule since 2005 when Pat Egan, Chris Wakefield and Ari Kafka all had three wins through the Bobcats' first half of their NEC schedule.

Terror On The Base Path
Quinnipiac is the only team in the Northeast Conference with three players ranked in the top ten in steals in Ben Farina (10), Chris Migani (7) and Mickey Amanti (7).

In Front Of The Pack
With Saturday's no-hitter, Kyle Birdsall now leads the NEC in opposing batting average (.198) and is third in strikeouts (29).

In The Mick Of Time
Mickey Amanti is quickly establishing himself as one of the top offensive players in the Northeast Conference. Amanti ranks second in batting (.381) and hits (43), eighth in total bases (50; 1.85 per game) and 10th in on-base percentage (.417) and steals (7).

Good Week Too
Amanti extended his team-leading hitting streak to 16 games in five games this past week. Amanti batted a gawdy .500 (11-22) while averaging 2.5 hits per game. This week he totaled three hits against Dartmout, including two doubles, and had a pair of hits in each of the Bobcats' four games against Monmouth.

Impressive Numbers
For the season, Amanti is hitting a team-high .381 (43-113) while leading the team in hits (43), runs scored (22), doubles (7), total bases (50), on-base percentage (.417) while ranking second with seven stolen bases.

Power Numbers From The Captain
Chris Migani currently ranks third in the NEC in home runs (3) and is sixth in RBI's (21), while his three stolen bases against Fairleigh Dickinson on March 20 are the most by a Northeast Conference player this season.

Good Weekend Rook
Freshman Zak Palmer (Mahwah, N.J.) drove in a team-high six runs for the week, batting out of the lower half of the line-up.

Big Ben
Ben Farina (Waterford, Conn.) had a solid week, batting .333 (6-18) with a double, a home run and six runs scored. Farina also had a team-best three walks and three stolen bases.

The Young Hurler
Freshman Ryan Walsh (Stamford, Conn.) made two appearances this week, logging four innings of work. Walsh held the opposition scoreless while scattering three hits.

Quinnipiac's March Athlete Of The Month
The Quinnipiac Department of Athletics and Recreation has announced that baseball senior Mickey Amanti has been named Quinnipiac's March Athletes of the Month. Amanti led the baseball team to its best start in program history as the Bobcats won 11 of their first 18 games. Amanti batted a team-high .364, including a team-leading 28 hits in 18 games for the month. Amanti also stroked five doubles and drove in nine runs while scoring 14 more. Amanti was also second with four stolen bases in the month. His most notable games included the Bobcats' season-opening win against Marshall when Amanti went 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. He had multiple-hit efforts against Richmond (twice), Rider, Army, Mount St. Mary's (twice) and a 4-for-5 day against Fairleigh Dickinson.

Two-Baggers
The Bobcats' active leader in doubles, with 43, Ben Farina needs five more two-baggers to break Binskoski's record of 47.

Number Crunching
Joe Poletsky currently sits at 98 career RBI's. The senior All-NEC third baseman needs to more RBI to become the 14th player in Quinnipiac history to reach the century mark. He will also become the 10th player in Quinnipiac history to reach 170 hits, 100 RBI and 30 doubles for his career.