POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – The Marist baseball team plays its final Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference series and games of the season at McCann Field as the Red Foxes host the Quinnipiac Bobcats in a three game set this weekend.

Due to the forecasted weather for the weekend, the two teams moved the first game of the series to Friday (3:30 p.m.) and then will play the final two in a doubleheader on Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather.

LAST TIME OUT:

The Red Foxes are coming off a 12-2 win at the Manhattan Jaspers on Sunday, during which Marist's offense exploded for 10 runs in the final three innings to secure the Game 3 and overall series victory after splitting a DH on Saturday with a 2-1 loss in Game 1, followed by a 3-2 win in Game 2.
Marist opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when senior Andrew Rouse doubled to right center with one out. Redshirt senior Greg Kocinskiand redshirt sophomore Tyler Kapuscinski both followed with walks and junior Frankie Gregoire ripped a two RBI single through the left side that scored both Rouse and Kocinski to give the Red Foxes an early 2-0 lead.

The Jaspers trimmed the deficit to one run in the bottom of the inning. After the leadoff batter struck out, a single and back-to-back walks loaded the bases with one out. A sacrifice fly by the next batter then scored the run from third and after one inning the score was 2-1 in favor of Marist.

Two innings later, Manhattan evened the score with a leadoff single, followed by a wild pitch that advanced the runner to second. The following batter then laced an RBI single up the middle that tied the game up at 2-2.

Neither team was able to break the deadlock until the top of the seventh. Junior Randy Taveras reached on a fielding error by the third baseman, redshirt junior Chris Tracz was hit by a pitch and freshman Nick Cantone reached on a fielder's choice with Tracz reaching second safely on a fielding error by the second baseman to load the bases with no outs. Freshman Reece Armitage followed with an RBI ground out that also moved Cantone to second and Tracz to third and after a strikeout, Rouse reached on a fielding error by the right fielder that allowed both runners to score and gave the Red Foxes a 5-2 lead.

Marist then added two more runs in the eighth on a Tracz sac fly and Cantone RBI double and pushed across five more runs in the ninth on a Kapuscinski RBI fielder's choice that was followed by a run scoring on an error, a Gregoire RBI single, a Taveras RBI single and an Armitage RBI bases loaded walk.

Defensively, senior Mike Coss kept the Jaspers off the bases and the scoreboard, throwing three innings of no run and no hit ball with three strikeouts to secure the win and his seventh save of the year.

OVER .700 BASEBALL:

Since beginning the season 1-10 overall, the Red Foxes have gone 23-7 in their last 30 games since March 16. In that span, Marist is averaging 6.4 runs/game, 9 hits/game, 6 RBI/game, 3 extra base hits/game and have allowed 4.23 runs/game while averaging 6.3 strikeouts/game.

SERIES HISTORY:

The Red Foxes are 3-3 in the last two seasons against the Bobcats, with each team sweeping the season series at their home field. In 2016, Marist picked up 4-2, 6-0 and 6-3 victories vs Quinnipiac at McCann Field to open MAAC play, while the Bobcats picked up 7-4, 2-0 and 4-2 wins vs the Red Foxes in Hamden in 2017.

FAIRWELL SENIORS:

Prior to this weekend's doubleheader, Marist will celebrate the careers of senior Spencer Bunting, Mike Coss, Tyler Dearden, Thomas Henderson, Matt Iantosca, Charlie Jerla, Greg Kocinski, Tony Romanelli, Andrew Rouse and Chris Tracz with a Senior Day Ceremony at 11:40 a.m.

SCOUTING THE BOBCATS:

Quinnipiac enters the weekend at 22-25 (13-5 MAAC) and are coming off an 8-1 win vs the Niagara Purple Eagles on Sunday that secured their fifth MAAC series victory of the season. The Bobcats currently sit in first place in the MAAC, one game ahead of the second place Red Foxes, Canisius Golden Griffins and Monmouth Hawks (12-6).

Senior Ben Gibson leads the team with 13 home runs, a .579 slugging percentage, 95 total bases, is tied for first with 39 RBI, is second with 32 runs scored and is third with a .299 average.

In their last conference series, senior Taylpr Luciani, graduate student Brandon Shileikis and junior Tyler Poulin got the starts on the mound.

Luiciani is 8-2 with a 3.21 ERA and in 70 innings pitched, has given up 35 (25 earned) runs on 57 hits with 33 walks, 52 strikeouts and a .215 opponent batting average against.

???????Shileikis is 5-5 with a 3.62 ERA and in 74.2 innings pitched, has given up 41 (30 earned) runs on 89 hits with 12 walks, 60 strikeouts and a .292 opponent batting average against.

???????Poulin is 4-6 with a 4.06 ERA and in 64.1 innings pitched, has given up 50 (29 earned) runs on 66 hits with 44 walks, 71 strikeouts and a .264 opponent batting average against.

HOW TO FOLLOW:

Live stats will be available for all three games and fans can follow @Marist_BSB on Twitter for in game updates.

UP NEXT:

The Red Foxes will wrap up the 2018 regular season with a three game series at the Canisius Golden Griffins with a doubleheader on Thursday (Noon) and a single game on Friday (Noon).