The
Canisius College baseball team lost 7-3 to Marist College on Sunday, in the
rubber game of this weekend's series at the Demske Sports Complex. The Golden
Griffins drop to 12-16 overall and 4-2 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference, losing a home MAAC series for the first time since March 2009.
Canisius
loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the second on two hit by
pitch and a walk. Marist starter Kyle Putnam then got freshman Jimmy Luppens to hit a grounder to
third, which resulted in a force out at home plate. Putnam then struck out freshman
Ryan Coppinger for the second out of the inning.
On the first pitch to freshman Jose
Torralba, Putnam suffered an injury and left the game. Reliever Sean
McKeown got Torralba to fly out to right on the next pitch as the Griffs left
the bases loaded.
Redshirt
senior Chris Cox walked the first
two batters to start the third and Mike Orefice battled back from down 0-2,
forced a full count and sent the 3-2 pitch over the fence in right-center to give
Marist a 3-0 lead.
Marist
(19-6, 4-2 MAAC) doubled its lead with a three-run top of the sixth to go up
6-0 as the Red Foxes chased Cox. Canisius got its first hit of the game in the sixth after senior Brian Burton led off with a walk, and
sophomore Chris Gruarin would hit a
one-out homer to right-center to make the score 6-2.
The
Red Foxes added a run in the top of the seventh while the Griffs tried to mount
a rally in the bottom of the eighth. Jamieson reached on an error to lead off
the inning and would eventually score on an infield single from junior Drew Pettit. However, freshman Shane Zimmer hit into a double play,
the third double play of the game for the Griffs, as Marist ended the Canisius
threat.
McKeown
(4-0) picked up the win by allowing two runs on one hit, walked two and struck
out two in 4.2 innings of work in relief of Putnam. Cox (0-5) took the loss as he allowed six runs,
all earned, in 5.1 innings while giving up six hits and walking five.
Canisius
will face the University at Buffalo in a doubleheader at the Demske Sports
Complex on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch for the two seven-inning games is
set for 2 p.m. The Golden Griffins will serve as the visiting team in the games
as the doubleheader was originally scheduled to be played at Buffalo.
Notes:
Canisius lost a home series for the first time since March 28-29, 2009, also
against Marist. The Golden Griffins had won seven straight home MAAC series...
Freshman Cody Stonish made his first
career start for the Griffs, starting in left field... Burton extended his
on-base streak to 27 games... Pettit and Torralba each extended their hitting
streaks to eight games, the longest active streaks on the team... Gruarin reached
base in all four plate appearances (home run, two walks and a hit by pitch).
