Manhattan scored four runs in the fifth and seventh and held off a Canisius rally with eight runs in the eighth as the Canisius College baseball team lost 20-8 to the Jaspers at the Demske Sports Complex on Sunday afternoon.
Junior Branson Joseph led Canisius (31-9, 11-4 MAAC) with three hits while senior Ryan Asis was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and hit his first homer of the season. Junior Kevin Reimer had two hits while junior Kevin Mailloux added two RBIs.
Manhattan (21-17-1, 10-5) scored one in the second, stringing together consecutive two-out hits as Ruben Perez doubled and scored on a single by Osmani Sanchez. The Jaspers added three in the third getting an RBI double from Kevin Nieto and two-run homer to left from Chad Salem.
Canisius cut the lead in half in the fourth, getting a solo homer from Mailloux and an RBI single from Reimer. Manhattan added four in the fifth, getting an RBI single from Nieto and a three-run homer from Salem and chased Canisius starter Mike Goemans (5-1).
The Jaspers pushed their lead to 12-2 in the seventh. Dom Lombardi worked a bases-loaded walk, Sanchez had a two-RBI single and Alex Masters added an RBI single up the middle.
Canisius would rally for six runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it 12-8. Connor Burke started the inning with a homer to left. Alec Cabello followed with a single and Adam Donato reached on an error. Ian Choy singled to right to score Cabello. After Mailloux lined out to center, scoring Donato, Joseph beat out a chopper to second to put runners at first and second. Kevin Mahoney reached on a fielder's choice to put runners on the corner with two outs. Asis then homered to left to get Canisius within four. Reimer doubled to center and chased Manhattan starter Dan Forman (6-3). Tom Moran then got Cabello to fly out to left to end the inning.
Manhattan would regain control of the game, getting eight runs in the top of the eighth. The Jaspers took advantage of three walks, one hit batter, two wild pitches and an error to score the eight runs on five hits.
Goemans took his first loss of the season, allowing eight runs on nine hits and walking one. Josh Sawatzky worked 1.2 scoreless innings of relief of Goemans.
Canisius plays its final scheduled home game of the year on Tuesday, when the Golden Griffins begin the defense of their Big Four championship against Niagara. First pitch at the Demske Sports Complex is set for 3 p.m.
Game Notes: The Griffs honored the four members of their senior class ? Asis, Donato, Reimer and Sawatzky ? prior to the start of the game... Bryan Smith pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the Griffs, his first appearance since April 9, against St. Bonaventure... The 20 runs allowed were the most allowed by Canisius since May 19, 2006, when Manhattan scored 24... The 46 runs scored on the season by Donato set a new school record while Mailloux is tied for second on the list with 44... Mailloux is now two homers off the single-season record of 13 by Todd Schell in 1994 and one RBI away from Schell's single-season record of 45... Canisius set the single-season record for runs scored during the weekend, besting the total of 336 from the 2006 campaign.
