The
Canisius College baseball team lost its first game of the 2011 season, falling
6-3 to Creighton in Cary, N.C. at the USA Baseball Complex on Saturday
afternoon. The loss evens the Golden Griffins' record at 1-1 on the early
season.
Sophomore
Chris Gruarin was the only Golden
Griffin with multiple hits on the day, going 2-for-4 with a run scored and an
RBI. Freshman Shane Zimmer went
1-for-3 with two RBI while senior Will
Chomicki reached base in two of his five plate appearances out of the
leadoff spot.
The
Griffs took the early 1-0 lead by scoring in the top of the second as Gruarin singled up
the middle and then came around to score on a double from Zimmer. The Bluejays
would come back with four runs in the bottom of the second inning, scoring
those four runs on just one hit. Canisius starter Chris Cox (0-1) retired the first two batters of the inning, but
then hit two batters and issued a walk to load the bases. After another hit
batter forced home a run and tied the game at 1-1, Trever Adams cleared the
bases with a two-out double and gave Creighton the 4-1 lead.
Canisius
bounced back with two runs in the top of the third inning. Chomicki led off
with a double and freshman Jose Torralba
followed with a single to put runners at the corners. After Torralba stole
second, senior Brian Burton drew a
one-out walk to load the bases. Gruarin would send a two-out single to left to advance
everyone 90 feet, score Chomicki and make the score 4-2. Zimmer drew a
bases-loaded walk to make the score 4-3.
That
would be all the scoring on the day for the Griffs as Creighton pitching retired the
next 17 Canisius batters in order. The duo of Jonas Dufek (1-0) and Jack
VanLeur combined to strike out 14 Canisius batters on the day. VanLeur retired all 12 Canisius batters
he faced while Dufek struck out 11 in his five innings of work.
Cox
took the loss for the Griffs, allowing six runs in four innings of work while walking
five and striking out four. Senior Josh
Marshall threw four innings of scoreless relief.
Canisius
concludes the weekend with two games on Sunday, facing Creighton at 11 a.m. and
then Toledo at 3 p.m.
Notes: Canisius
and Creighton played for the first time... Canisius had 14 batters strike out for
the second consecutive game. The Griffs didn't strike out more than 11 times in
a game in 2010 and the 14 strikeouts are the most since Canisius struck out 16
times against Rider on April 5, 2008, in 11 innings... Sophomore Kevin Whitehead made his second career
start, the first of his career at catcher... Chomicki has reached base in four of his
nine plate appearances while Zimmer has reached base in five of eight plate
appearances on the young season... The Canisius bullpen has thrown 7.1 scoreless innings of relief so
far this season.
