PHOTO GALLERY

THE BASICS:

RESULT:  Quinnipiac 7, Hartford 5
LOCATION: Fiondella Field (West Hartford, Conn.)
RECORDS: Hartford (21-9), Quinnipiac (10-20)
WP: Hamilton (1-1), LP: Stepniak (0-1), S: Hitt (3)

THE LEAD:
Erik Ostberg went 3-for-5 at the plate and Aaron Wilson scored a pair of runs, but Quinnipiac jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 7-5 victory over the Hartford baseball team on Thursday. Matthew Oestricher delivered three hits of his own in the victory for the Bobcats.
 
Wyatt Hamilton collected the win out of the bullpen with two scoreless frames for Quinnipiac, while Brian Stepniak was carded with the loss for the Hawks. Justin Thomas added a scoreless inning for QU, while Robert Hitt tossed the final two frames to finish off the contest.
 
Wilson had two hits in a losing effort, as did David MacKinnon and T.J. Ward for the Hawks.

HOW THEY SCORED
• Quinnipiac plated three runs in the top of the first on three hits and an error to take a 3-0 lead.
• Hartford countered with a run in the bottom of the frame, with MacKinnon doubling to score Wilson, who had tripled to right to start the game.
• Both pitchers put zeroes on the board in the second and the third, but QU delivered a crooked number in the fourth, one on a wild pitch and one on a solo home run by Matthew Batten.
• In the bottom of the fourth, Hartford rebounded with a three spot, starting with singles by Ostberg and Ben Bengtson, and the first two runs coming in when Chris Sullivan doubled into the left field corner.
• Later in the frame, Sebastian DeMauro brought in a run on a sac fly to cut the deficit to 5-4.
• Quinnipiac came back with a solo tally in the top of the fifth, but John Mormile was able to strand the bases loaded to limit the damage.
• Both pitchers settled in at that point, and the score remained that way until the top of the eighth inning, when QU got an insurance run on an RBI infield single.
• Hartford got a run in the bottom of the ninth with Ostberg's single driving in Wilson, who doubled, but the Hawks were unable to get any closer in the 7-5 defeat.

UP NEXT:
The Hawks will hit the road this weekend for a crucial conference series at first-place Binghamton. The Bearcats are 7-2 in league action heading into the three-game set. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday at noon and the final game of the series on Sunday at noon.