Last year, optimism spilled from the locker room of the 2024 Quinnipiac baseball team, which had been voted to finish No. 2 in the MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll. All foretold a promising season. Instead, the team subsequently went 20-30, finished eighth in the MAAC and missed the postseason tournament entirely.
Now, a clean slate presents itself. The Bobcats will play 53 games in 2025, giving them 53 opportunities to find the magic that could bring the program its first MAAC championship since 2019. They were selected to finish No. 4 this season, naming one player, outfielder CJ Willis, to the preseason All-MAAC Team.
With the season looming, we will break down six key matchups inside Quinnipiac’s 2025 schedule, analyzing the implications each one could have on the Bobcats’ season.
No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs
Feb. 14 (12 p.m.) and Feb. 15 (12 p.m.) – Wilmington, North Carolina
Quinnipiac will play four games in three days to start its season, traveling to Wilmington to play No. 8 Georgia and UNC Wilmington twice each. The Bulldogs specifically will be quite a difficult matchup for the Bobcats, who have not beaten a nationally-ranked opponent since their 2019 season that ended in a MAAC championship. Quinnipiac scored eight runs Feb. 23 to hand then-No. 20 ranked Wake Forest a loss.
Georgia finished 2024 with a 43-17 record, making a run all the way to an NCAA Tournament’s Super Regional, the equivalent of a quarterfinal round. The Bobcats may be outmatched against a high-profile opponent, but it will be a good opportunity nonetheless to see how the team competes against notable competition. It is also a good opportunity to see how the team will line up on the diamond. Quinnipiac had some serious roster turnover from 2024 to 2025, losing 21 players from last year including a handful of top starters like catcher Keegan O’Connor, center fielder Jared Zimbardo and designated hitter/first baseman Sean Swenson.
The stakes for these two games are low, but a commendable performance from Quinnipiac could wash away the bad taste of last season’s underperformance and set the tone for 2025. Georgia will be one of the best teams — if not the best — the Bobcats play this year and it will be fun to watch the Bobcats match up against a Power 5 roster If Quinnipiac can show some signs of life against one of the SEC’s best, it could be a positive sign of things to come later in the season.
– Zachary Carter
Iona Gaels
March 7 (3 p.m.), March 8 (2 p.m.), March 9 (1 p.m.) – Hamden
Jumping ahead to the weekend of March 7, the Bobcats return to Hamden, squaring off against the Iona Gaels in a three-game clash, their first series in MAAC play in the 2025 season. Iona finished with an underwhelming 12-38 record last spring, giving the Bobcats a chance to take an early advantage in conference standings.
In 2024, Quinnipiac won all three games against Iona, scoring 27 runs in as many innings. Throughout 50 contests, the Gaels had the third-highest earned run average in the MAAC, allowing close to eight earned runs per nine innings. Additionally, they ranked No. 4 total earned runs allowed and No. 2 in walks. To take advantage of this, veteran players like graduate first baseman Sebastian Mueller need to keep the offense hot. Although he only appeared in 11 games, Mueller is coming off his best season at the plate, hitting .357 in 2024 and is poised to improve again as he steadily has in his four years in Hamden.
When they met Iona in 2024,, the Bobcats had a 6-18 record. Their sweep of the Gaels allowed them to finish the season on a good note, going 14-12 to end the campaign. If the Bobcats can get out on the right foot against a conference opponent, history could repeat itself for Quinnipiac, allowing it to go on another positive run as they approach other MAAC foes like Rider and Marist to wrap up March.
– Michael King
UConn Huskies
April 1(3 p.m.) – Storrs
April 1 marks the first meeting between these two in-state rivals since 2017. The all-time series between Quinnipiac and UConn is a bit lopsided, with the Huskies taking 12 of 17 games and winning the last seven. But, much like Georgia, UConn will be a good gauge for Quinnipiac to assess where the team is at around the halfway mark of the season.
The Huskies are typically one of the nation’s best teams. They’re the favorites to win the Big East this year and are a staple in NCAA postseason play, having appeared in the NCAA tournament every year since 2018 (minus the canceled COVID season in 2020). With this game being played midweek, the Bobcats won’t have to face one of UConn’s top starters. Stealing a win in Storrs could ignite a strong push in the back half of MAAC play and give the Bobcats the confidence they might need to make a late-season push.
– Zachary Carter
Niagara Purple Eagles
April 4 (3 p.m.), April 5 (2 p.m.), April 6 (12 p.m.) – Lewiston, New York
Three days after Quinnipiac challenges UConn, the Bobcats will travel to western New York for a three game weekend series with Niagara. If the Bobcats can pull off an upset win in Storrs, they could ride into this series with some serious momentum against a formidable conference opponent.
The Purple Eagles, 2024’s MAAC champions, come in at sixth place in the preseason coaches poll. They saw two of their best players from the previous season leave for the MLB draft, with junior first baseman Eric Rataczak and sophomore pitcher Ryan Minckler being drafted by the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals, respectively. Rataczak had one of the best seasons in Niagara history last season, leading the MAAC in batting average (.396), OPS (1.183), RBI (71) and OBP (.485).
Without these players for the spring season, Quinnipiac matches up much more favorably this time around.
Last time around, Rataczak had three hits, two RBI and drew five walks in a three-game sweep of Quinnipiac at home. A series win in the early stages of the second half of the season could provide some crucial fuel to the fire if the Bobcats want to go on a hot run down the stretch in MAAC play.
– Michael King
Merrimack Warriors
April 11 (3 p.m.), April 12 (1 p.m.), April 13 (1 p.m.) – Hamden
2025 is the inaugural season for Merrimack in the MAAC. They’re not projected to have a stellar year — voted to finish just ninth in the preseason coaches poll — but they’ll play the Bobcats in a mid-April series that could spell trouble if Quinnipiac does not approach the three games with caution.
Quinnipiac is a team that has not played well on the road in recent years. Dating back to 2020, the Bobcats are 32-91 in the past five seasons when playing games away from Hamden. Coming into this Merrimack series, they will have played five straight games on the road against two state schools in UConn and URI, bracketed by a three-game series against the defending MAAC champion Niagara Purple Eagles.
If the Bobcats might hit a skid at any point in the season, here makes the most sense.
Head coach John Delaney and his team will have to take advantage of what should be a struggling Warriors squad and take care of business when Quinnipiac might need a series win the most. The Bobcats and Warriors have met three times in the two programs’ histories, all of which came last year. Quinnipiac beat Merrimack both at home and on the road, including an impressive 21-3 win in early March.
– Zachary Carter
Sacred Heart Pioneers
May 15 (3 p.m.), May 16 (1 p.m.), May 17 (1 p.m.) – Fairfield
The Bobcats finish their regular season with a three three-game MAAC series. The final opponent of that stretch is Sacred Heart, a newcomer to the MAAC. With a respectable 35-23 record in 2024, the Pioneers are looking to make some noise in a brand new setting. The Bobcats and Pioneers have a 51-game history, with Sacred Heart narrowly in front in the all-time matchup at 27-24.
Once again, the inability to consistently win on the road over the past five years could be a major hill to climb, so Quinnipiac will need to be extra focused if it wants to extend its season. A repeat of last spring, which saw the Bobcats finish 3-7 in their final ten contests, would be detrimental with teams like Canisius and Mount St. Mary’s looming for a playoff berth.
Depending on how the Bobcats handle earlier opponents this season, this final series could be a make-or-break for them if they want to be a disruptor in the postseason.
– Michael King