The Canisius College baseball team rallied from deficits in the ninth and 10^th innings, capped by a two-run, walk-off homer from senior Sean Jamieson, to defeat the University at Buffalo 5-4 at the Demske Sports Complex on Wednesday. The Golden Griffins improve to 11-14 on the season and win for the fifth straight game and sixth time in the last seven games.

With Buffalo leading 3-2 after taking the lead on a sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth, Jamieson led off the bottom of the ninth with a double down the left-field line. Senior Brian Burton moved Jamieson to third with a grounder and junior Drew Pettit followed with a single through the left side to score Jamieson and tie the game. After a balk moved Pettit to second, sophomore Chris Gruarin laced a ball down the right-field line that went just foul. Later in the at-bat, Gruarin was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second. Buffalo reliever Jeff Thompson then struck out senior Andrew Russo and pinch hitter Frank Polino to send the game to extra innings.

Buffalo (7-11) took the lead in the top of the 10^th as the Bulls used three straight one-out singles to load the bases. Eric Bryce then reached on a fielder's choice after sending a grounder deep into the hole at short that scored Alex Baldock to give Buffalo the 4-3 lead. Junior Ryan Fennell (1-0) would get a strikeout to end the Buffalo rally.

Thompson got two quick outs to start the bottom of the 10^th but freshman Shane Zimmer then drew a two-out walk. Jamieson was down 0-2 in the count and sent the next pitch into the netting over the left-field fence for the walk-off win.

Canisius scored first as the Griffs manufactured a run in the bottom of the third with Russo going the other way with a leadoff single to right. Freshman Jimmy Luppens laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Russo to second. The senior catcher then stole third base on the next pitch. Freshman Ryan Coppinger brought Russo home with a sacrifice fly to right and gave Canisius the early 1-0 lead.

Buffalo came right back with two runs in the top of the fourth, but the Griffs tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Canisius had the chance for a big inning by loading the bases with nobody out, as Zimmer led off with a single and Jamieson and Burton each walked on four pitches. However, Buffalo starter Nick Folk got Pettit to hit into a double play and then struck out sophomore Chris Gruarin to limit the Canisius rally, keeping the score tied at 2-2.

Sophomore Scott Whitehead started for Canisius and allowed two runs on nine hits while walking zero and striking out three in seven innings, the longest start of Whitehead's career.

Canisius plays its first conference home series of the 2011 season this weekend when the Golden Griffins host Marist College. First pitch for Saturday's doubleheader is set for noon.

Notes: The five-game winning streak is the ninth winning streak of five games or longer for the Griffs in the last four seasons... Canisius has won five of the last six from Buffalo... The seven innings pitched by Whitehead were a career high, besting his previous career high of four innings... Canisius is 46-14 (.767) in its last 60 home games... In those 46 wins, nine have been of the walk-off variety... Burton's hit streak came to an end at eight games, but the senior has reached base in all 24 games he's played in this season... Gruarin's seven-game hitting streak also came to and end... Jamieson has scored 18 runs in the last eight games... Redshirt junior Tim Seil has gone at least two innings in four of his last five appearances... Zimmer extended his hitting streak to six games, which is the longest active streak on the team.