Tied at 2 through six innings, the Bobcats (10-25, 9-7 NEC) were revitalized heading into the top of the seventh. After a single by Mickey Amanti and a Blue Devil (17-15, 10-10 NEC) pitching change, Ben Farina doubled home Amanti for the winning run.

The first four runs came within the first six innings. In the first inning, Bobcat third baseman Joe Poletsky doubled to right field, driving in Farina who was on second. The Blue Devils responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the second, when Mitch Wells homered to right-center field.

The Bobcats took back the lead in the top of the third when sophomore second baseman Chris Migani made it to first on an error by shortstop Anthony Scialdone, moving Farina to second, Brian Monack to third and scoring Mike Bartlett for the second run. CCSU’s Kyle Zarotney drove in Tommy Meade from second in the sixth inning to tie the score again.

The Bobcats took the lead in the seventh and held on for a 3-2 victory.

The Bobcats also won the first and third games of the series, while losing the second. In the first game, the Bobcats trailed by one heading into the ninth inning. Gabe Guerino hit a two-run homer to right field, giving the Bobcats an 11-10 win. The Bobcats’ remaining six runs were scored by Farina, Monack, Migani (2), Kyle Nisson and Ryan Ullrich.

CCSU and Quinnipiac split the doubleheader on Saturday. CCSU won the first game with a score of 8-4. The Blue Devils scored all eight of their runs in the first six innings of the seven inning game. The Bobcats made a last attempt to even the score in the top of the seventh, scoring four runs. Guerino, Monack, Ullrich, and Bartlett each scored a run.

Quinnipiac won the second game of the day 13-4. The Bobcats had successful fourth and fifth innings, scoring five runs in each. Amanti, Monack, and Farina each crossed the plate three times, while Bartlett scored twice, and Poletsky and Ullrich each had one run.

The Bobcats will take on Monmouth in a four-game series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Monmouth University Baseball Field in West Long Branch, N.J.

• Sunday’s box score

A wild pitch by Harvard reliever Jessica Ferri in the third inning set up Bobcat catcher Katie Allendorfer for a chance to break a 2-2 tie. Allendorfer sent a fly into left field to bring home Casella for the winning run.

After a scoreless first inning, Harvard scored in the top of the second. Jessica Ferri scored on a groundout by Kassy Shiotani to Bobcat shortstop Alex Alba. The Bobcats evened up the score in the bottom of the second when Katie Allendorfer scored off an illegal pitch.

Harvard regained the lead in the top of the third, with a home run by Whitney Shaw.

Down by one, the Bobcats tied it up at two after Bellush singled to left field, advancing Angela Casella to second and driving Joelle Jacobsen home.

“Luckily Emily [Bellush] was able to have a huge hand in getting us another run from the plate; she got a big RBI there,” head coach Germaine Fairchild said. “We got a lead, and Heather [Schwartzburg] was able to come in and preserve it for us.”

Schwartzburg shut out Harvard batters in the last four innings, allowing just two hits and a walk while striking out seven to earn her seventh victory of the season.

The softball team, which starts its conference schedule on Sunday against Long Island, has set high goals for themselves with playoffs coming up at the end of April.

“We expect to be there fighting for one of those four playoff spots,” Fairchild said. “That being said, the trick to winding up there is to not press and to just trust and believe in our abilities between now and then. If we can do that, we’re good enough to be there. We just have to really let that happen.”

• Box score

The Bobcats trailed by one run heading into the ninth inning, but three quick outs kept the team winless in its season-opening out-of-conference games.

Bobcat junior shortstop Mickey Amanti scored the game’s first run after Crusaders’ pitcher Bobby Holmes walked three straight. Sophomore first baseman Gabe Guerino drove in two more runs on a single down the line and the Bobcats would up with five runs. But starting pitcher Todd DeFrancesco couldn’t hold the lead.

Crusader leadoff hitter Brendan McCrea launched a home run and right fielder Jack Laurendeau gave Holy Cross a 7-4 lead with a grand slam.

DeFrancesco allowed another leadoff homer in the third inning, which separated the two teams after the Bobcats rallied for three runs in the fifth inning. Sophomore catcher Kyle Nisson’s two-run double brought in Joe Poletsky and Brian Monack. Jeff Carino grounded out to second base scored Guerino from third.

Holy Cross hurler John Pedrotty kept the Bobcats in check until the middle of the eighth inning when Ryan George replaced him. George struck out Amanti to end the threat, and then rung up two more in the ninth to seal the deal.

• Box score

The Greyhounds took the lead early on in the first quarter with two goals, one at the 10:33 minute mark by attacker Cooper MacDonnell and one two minutes later by midfielder Stephen Murray. Near the end of the quarter, Quinnipiac seemed like it was starting to make a comeback. With a little over a minute remaining, midfielder Garett Kerr put one up on the board, with an assist by attacker Christian Haggerty.

Heading into the second quarter with a 2-1 lead, the Greyhounds looked to increase the gap in the scores. MacDonnell placed another point on the board just under five minutes into play. The gap only increased when attacker Matt Langan scored on Bobcat goalie Kevin Benzing.

In the remaining six minutes of the half, the Bobcats snuck two goals past Greyhound goaltender Jake Hagelin. The first was an unassisted goal by Bobby Schnibbe, while the second was by Alex Marotto off a pass from Todd Kaiser. With only a one-goal gap, the Bobcats were catching up. But the Greyhounds responded with a goal of their own, by Patrick Fanshaw, with seven seconds left in the half, widening the lead to two goals.

“There are certain points in the game when it’s 5-3, and it’s either going to go 5-4 or 6-3,” Quinnipiac head coach Eric Fekete said. “Those are the margins where you lose the games. When it got to a two-goal lead, we needed to capitalize it. When you let it stretch to a four-goal lead, that’s just too much.”

Loyola continued to dominate the match entering the third and fourth quarters. With the only goals of the third quarter —scored by Josh Hawkins and Taylor Ebsary — the Greyhounds were in control of the game. Entering the fourth, Loyola’s Eric Lusby scored 1:04 into the quarter, making the score 8-3.

The Bobcats attempted to make a comeback, with a goal two minutes after Lusby’s and one with 16 seconds remaining in the game, scored by Todd Kaiser and Jack Oppenheimer.

Between the two Quinnipiac goals in the last 15 minutes, Loyola put three more points on the scoreboard. Within two minutes of one another, Langan had scored two more goals and Collin Finnerty one.

“I’m not going to panic about it,” Fekete said. “We just have to be better, and we know what we have to do, and we have to win the next couple games ahead of us. We don’t have another ECAC game until March 20, so we have to get to business and it starts with Wagner on Wednesday.”

The Bobcats will host Wagner on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Quinnipiac fell behind early in the first period. Within the first five minutes of play, the Dutchmen’s defenseman Brock Matheson scored.

Union widened the gap between the scores when it scored its second goal of the evening. After a turnover in the neutral zone at 15:39 of the first period, Union’s Jason Walters received a pass from Mike Schreiber and made the score 2-0.

After Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold replaced sophomore goaltender Dan Clarke with freshman Mathieu Cadieux, it seemed that the Bobcats were on their way to a comeback. Less than a minute after the change, the Bobcats scored their first goal when Mike Atkinson received the rebounded puck off a shot by Russell Goodman. Atkinson’s goal put Quinnipiac on the board, down by one.

The second period opened with the Bobcats still taking control. At 5:50 of the period, senior forward Greg Holt tied the game with assists by Scott Zurevinski and Clay Harvey.

The Dutchmen came back before the period ended with two goals of their own. The first came at the 8:52 mark with a goal by Christiansen, the second eight minutes later by Shaffer. Both goals were the firsts of the season for Christiansen and Shaffer. Jon Lareau was credited with the assists on both goals.

The two-goal lead increased when the third period started. Within one minute of the start of the period, forward Jeremy Welsh scored on the power play, putting the Dutchmen up three. This goal was answered by the Bobcats with one of their own, with a goal by Brandon Wong off a pass by Holt, who gained his second point of the game.

Union did not allow the Bobcats to close the gap as two more shots by the Dutchmen slipped by Cadieux. In the 17^th minute of the period, goals by Mario Valery-Trabucco and Andrew Buote clinched the win for the Dutchmen as the score became 7-3 with Union in the lead.

The Bobcats (15-15-2, 9-11-0 ECAC Hockey) take on Brown on Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. at the TD Bank Sports Center.

The Quinnipiac’s women’s ice hockey team defeated the St. Lawrence Saints 2-1 at the TD Bank Sports Center on Friday evening.

The Bobcats opened up the scoring when defenseman Bethany Dymarczyk put one on the board 23 seconds into the third period. With assists by forward Heather Hughes and defenseman Melissa Perry, Dymarczyk’s shot slipped into the lower-left corner of the net.

Eight minutes later, Quinnipiac’s second goal came when a shot by defender Felicia Vieweg hit the post and deflected into the net past Saint goaltender Brittony Chartier. Hughes and forward Kallie Flor were credited with the assists.

Trailing by two, the Saints pulled their goalie with seven minutes to play, a rare occurrence in any hockey game. But the Bobcats pulled through the obstacle.

“Until they pulled the goalie, I thought we had total control of the [third] period,” Quinnipiac head coach Rick Seeley said. “Then, I thought we battled the last seven minutes. It was an interesting situation to have the goalie pulled all that time, but our kids responded well.”

With an extra man on the ice, the Saints seemed intent on tying up the score. They nearly succeeded when their first goal came with 54 seconds remaining. The Saint senior forward Tara Akstull scored an unassisted goal. Despite several attempts, the Saints never scored the game-tying goal.

The first two periods were full of fierce competition, but both teams remained scoreless. The defensive lines on both sides were strong, as few shots reached either team’s goalie. Of the 34 shots attempted by Quinnipiac, only 11 hit their target, and only 14 of St. Lawrence’s 33 shots hit Bobcat goalie Victoria Vigilanti.

“It was a good game defensively,” Vigilanti said on the defensive performance. “They forced all shots to be made from the outside, so it made my job easier and my life easier at the same time. That’s a goalie’s dream.”

With this win over St. Lawrence, the Bobcats move up in the ECAC Hockey standings. While the Bobcats move up in ranking, their chance at home-ice advantage for the playoffs increases as well.

“We were pretty sure we needed to win three of our last four to have a chance at home ice, and this was the critical one,” Seeley said. “If St. Lawrence had beaten us, they would’ve been three points ahead, and I don’t think we could have caught them. So this was a critical one, and now I think the pressure’s off.”

The Bobcats (16-8-7, 9-4-6 ECAC), who moved up to fourth place, will take on Clarkson on Saturday at 4 p.m.

• Box score
• ECAC Hockey standings

Senior forward Evelina Husar padded Quinnipiac’s 1-0 lead with a goal early in the second period. After a rebounded shot by freshman Brittany Lyons, Husar shot the puck past Raider goaltender Kimberly Sass. Freshman Cate Colucci also assisted the winning goal.

Quinnipiac’s first goal came within the first four minutes of the first period. Freshman forward Heather Hughes scored her team-leading 12^th goal on a power play with a shot between Sass’s pad and the post.

The Raiders’ attempt at a comeback came in the third period. At the 40 second mark, Raiders’ forward Jenna Klynstra scored on the power play off the faceoff. Despite the thirteen attempted shots in the period, the Raiders were unable to tie up the game.

Quinnipiac goaltender Victoria Vigilanti stopped 28 Colgate shots, while Sass and backup goaltender Lisa Plenderleith combined to block 32.

Quinnipiac received one vote in last week’s USCHO poll, and with a three-point weekend, the team could receive more votes.

The Bobcats (15-8-7, 8-4-6 ECAC) are tied for sixth place in ECAC Hockey and will return home this weekend to take on St. Lawrence (fourth) on Friday and No. 3 Clarkson (first in ECAC) on Saturday.

• Box score
• ECAC Hockey standings

The Engineers’ game-winning goal came early in the third period. RPI forward Kendra Dunlop scored off a pass from Laura Gersten at the 4:24 mark with a shot between the pads of Bobcat goalie Victoria Vigilanti.

The Bobcats’ chance to tie up the game came six minutes later when senior forward Kallie Flor picked up a rebound off a shot by freshman forward Kristen Eklund. Flor’s shot was stopped by goaltender Sonja van der Bliek, leaving the Bobcats scoreless.

Despite keeping pace with the Engineers throughout all three periods, the Bobcats were outshot 25-17. Vigilanti made 24 saves for the Bobcats, while van der Bliek stopped 17 shots.

Quinnipiac’s record falls to 13-8-6 overall and 6-4-5 ECAC Hockey played, while the Engineers improve to 11-10-5 (8-4-3 ECAC).

The Bobcats face conference foe Union (5-21-1, 1-13-1 ECACH) on Saturday at 4 p.m.

• Box score
• ECAC Hockey standings

The Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team completed its weekend sweep of Wayne State with a 4-1 win on Saturday. It was the Bobcats’ sixth straight victory and kept them unbeaten at the TD Bank Sports Center in the past three months.

After two scoreless periods, the offense finally came alive in the third period.

“They knew they had to wake up,” Quinnipiac head coach Rick Seeley said. “Lately, we’ve been playing the kind of hockey we played in the third, so they knew what to go back to,”

Bobcat senior captain Kallie Flor netted two of the team’s four goals with the first coming just 16 seconds into the period. Her second arrived with 6:12 to go on a shot over the right shoulder of Warrior goaltender Delayne Brian.

“[Flor] had a big third period for sure,” Seeley said. “She kind of led the way last week against Syracuse and that continued today. It was a great day.”

The Warriors answered Flor’s first goal with one of their own just over two minutes into the period. Warrior sophomore forward Micheline Frappier scored off a pass from freshman forward Jaclyn Stapleton.

The Bobcats took over the game from that point on, responding with three straight goals. Freshman forward Kristen Eklund broke the tie off a rebound on a shot by Jordan Elkins less than a minute after the Warriors’ lone goal.

Two insurance goals followed: the first by Flor and the second by senior forward Janine Duffy on an empty net in the final minute of action.

The win wrapped up Quinnipiac’s out-of-conference schedule, leaving the team with eight conference games over the last four weekends of the regular season. The Bobcats are currently tied for fourth in ECAC Hockey and will take on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (tied for fourth) on Friday and Union (tied for last) on Saturday – both on the road.

The Bobcats received their first ever vote in last week’s USCHO poll and have a chance to crack the top 10 this week.

“The fact that we’re starting to get back in the rankings is satisfying, but it’s not going to dictate what we do,” Seeley said.

• Box score
• USCHO rankings

Quinnipiac has gone 1-5-1 after a roaring 12-1 start to the season, dropping its record to 13-6-1 (7-5-0 ECAC Hockey). The Engineers improved to 11-10-1 (4-4-0 ECAC Hockey) with the win.

Cornell, tied for second place in ECAC Hockey, didn’t play last night, so Quinnipiac remains in first place by one point. Union is also tied for second after beating Princeton 7-3.

The Bobcats dominated the Engineers throughout the first period, outshooting them 13-5. Neither team could find the back of the net, but RPI came out of the locker room strong after the first intermission.

The Engineers filled the period with three unanswered goals by Jordan Watts, Marty O’Grady and Joel Malchuk, two of which were short-handed. Engineers forward Chase Polacek assisted on all three goals.

It seemed the Bobcats were ready to make another third period comeback when sophomore forward Scott Zurevinski put them on the scoreboard five minutes in. With only a minute remaining in the game, the Engineers responded with a goal of their own when the puck slid into an open net on a shot by Bryan Brutlag.

The Bobcats outshot the Engineers 37-15 for the game, but RPI made more of its shots count.

The Bobcats continue their five-game homestand on tonight at 7 p.m. vs. Union. A loss would put Quinnipiac out of first place for the first time all season.