Three
two-out runs in the seventh gave Siena College a 5-4 win over the Canisius
College baseball team at the Demske Sports Complex on Sunday afternoon. The
Golden Griffins, who won the firs ttwo games of the series on Friday, fall to
11-13 overall and 2-1 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Siena
(3-19, 1-2 MAC) took the early lead, scoring a run in the top of the second
with back-to-back two-out hits. The Saints had their fourth straight batter
reach with two outs on a single through the right side from Vincent Citro, but a
one-hop throw from junior Chris Gruarin
one-hop throw from right field was right on the mark, and junior Brooklyn Foster applied the tag on Ryan
Metzler to end the inning.
The
Griffs came right back, with senior Drew
Pettit being hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the second. Sophomore
Shane Zimmer followed with a triple
to left-center, tying the game at 1-1. Freshman Jesse Kelso drew a walk and then stole second to get two runners in
scoring position with no outs. However, the Griffs couldn't take the early lead
and stranded Zimmer and Kelso. Canisius did take the lead in the bottom of the
third when Pettit took advantage of two walks from James Murray with a two-RBI
double to right center, giving Canisius a 3-1 lead.
After
Siena cut the deficit in half with a run in the top of the fifth, the Saints took
advantage of a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh from redshirt junior Billy Martin. After a sacrifice bunt
advanced Metzler to second, redshirt junior Nathan Linseman came into the game to relieve Martin and match up
with the next two left-handed batters. After the second infield single of the game from Citro put runners
at the corners with one out, Linseman struck out Ken Kirshner looking for the
second out of the inning. Senior Ryan
Fennell came into the game to face John Rooney, and Rooney placed the 2-2
pitch just inside the right-field line to score two runs. Larry Balkwill then
hit a fly ball to shallow right field, which fell between three Canisius
fielders, scoring Rooney to make it 5-3.
The
Griffs got one-out singles from Jose Torralba and Connor Panas in the seventh.
After Gruarin reached on a fielder's choice and replaced Panas on first,
Gruarin would move to second on a wild pitch to get two runners into scoring
position. Pettit then followed with a groundball to short that was bobbled by
Metzler and allowed Torralba to score and make it 5-4.
That
would be as close as the Griffs could get as Neil Fryer retired the side in
order in the eighth and ninth innings to pick up his second save of the season.
James Murray went 6.1 innings, allowed four runs, three earned, to pick up his
first win of the season.
Martin
allowed three runs in 6.1 innings of work while striking out five. Linseman
(3-3) took the loss by allowing one run in his appearance. Senior Alex Tufts threw two scoreless innings
of relief.
Canisius
will play five games in Western New York this week, starting with Tuesday's
game at St. Bonaventure. The Griffs will host Buffalo on Wednesday, before
starting a three-game series with Rider University at the Demske Sports Complex
on Saturday.
Notes: Zimmer
extended his consecutive games streak of reaching base to 31 games... After going
12-for-24 with two outs in Friday's doubleheader, Canisius was 1-for-11 with
two outs on Sunday. Siena went 7-for-15 with two outs on Sunday, after going 2-for-17
on Friday... Canisius lost its seventh straight one-run game... Gruarin has a walk in
five of the last six games... Canisius starting pitchers have thrown at least six
innings in 10 of the last 11 games... Freshman Connor Panas has a hit in five straight games... Torralba has
multi-hit games in four of the last eight games.
