The
Canisius College baseball team scored five runs in the ninth inning but
couldn't complete the comeback as the Golden Griffins lost 7-5 at No. 23
Kentucky on Saturday afternoon. Canisius is now 7-7 on the season.
Kentucky
(15-0) held Canisius to four hits through the first eight innings. The Wildcats
scored in four consecutive innings, getting one in the second, two in the
third, one in the fourth and three in the fifth inning off Canisius starter Garrett Cortright (2-2). The sophomore
went six innings, allowing seven earned runs on 11 hits. Senior Alex Tufts threw two scoreless innings
of relief, allowing one hit and striking out two.
Sophomore
Ronnie Bernick started the
ninth-inning rally with a leadoff single and moved to second on a one-out
single from senior Chris Gruarin. After
sophomore Shane Zimmer reached on an
error to score Bernick, sophomore Jimmy
Luppens followed with an RBI double to score Gruarin and make it 7-2.
Junior
Brooklyn Foster was hit by a pitch
to load the bases, but Trevor Gott struck out freshman Connor Panas for the second out of the inning. Junior Manny Hernandez used an infield single - his third hit of the day - to
score pinch runner Sam Cumbo and junior
Christian Segar had a two-RBI single
to score Foster and pinch runner Ryan
Coppinger to make it 7-5. With runners at the corners, Gott then struck out
Bernick to end the game.
Jerad
Grundy (3-0) threw 7.1 scoreless innings and struck out seven to earn the win.
Canisius
and Kentucky conclude the three-game series on Sunday, with game time set for 1
p.m.
Notes: Canisius
batted around for the fifth time this season, sending 10 hitters to the plate
in the top of the ninth... Bernick extended his hitting streak to a team-high
eight games... Zimmer extended his streak of consecutive games reaching base to
21 games... Hernandez had three hits in four at-bats after coming into the game
with two hits in his previous 11 at-bats... Tufts hasn't allowed a run in his
last 5.2 innings pitched... Luppens has nine hits in the last three games and has at least two hits in each of those three games.
