The Canisius College baseball team lost its second consecutive conference series, falling 7-3 at Fairfield University in the rubber game of the weekend's series in Fairfield, Conn. The Golden Griffins drop to 23-23 overall and 9-6 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, sitting alone in second place in the league standings.

Freshman Connor Panas had a career-high four hits, one of four Golden Griffins with multi-hit games. Sophomores Jimmy Luppens and Shane Zimmer and senior Drew Pettit each had two hits, with Zimmer also reaching base in four of his five plate appearances by drawing two walks.

Fairfield took the early lead with a sacrifice fly from Tyler Wosleger. Zimmer would throw out a runner at the plate to end the first, his first outfield assists of the season. Canisius came right back and tied the game in the top of the second. Pettit led off with a single and junior Brooklyn Foster was hit by a pitch. Junior Chris Gruarin laid down a sacrifice bunt, but a Fairfield error allowed Gruarin to reach and Pettit to score an unearned run. Canisius couldn't capitalize on the opportunity, with two groundballs resulting in two Griffs getting thrown out at the plate. Fairfield starter Brett Shulick was able to get out the inning and keep the score tied at 1-1.

Canisius took the lead in the fifth as sophomore Ronnie Bernick led off with a triple and ended up scoring on a one-out single from Panas. A walk to Zimmer put two runners on with one out, but Luppens hit into a double play for the third time in the game and ended the inning.

Fairfield broke the game open in the sixth, scoring five runs on three hits. Wosleger had his second sacrifice fly of the game and Anthony Haljar had an RBI double to give the Stags the lead. A three-run homer from Sebastian Salvo gave the Stags a 6-2 lead. Fairfield added a run in the eighth and the Griffs scored once in the ninth on an RBI double from Luppens. 

Redshirt junior Billy Martin (4-4) took the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits in six innings.

Canisius returns home for its final four home games of the 2012 season, starting with Tuesday's non-conference game against St. Bonaventure. First pitch at the Demske Sports Complex is set for 4 p.m.

Notes: Canisius lost the series with Fairfield for the first time since the 2005 season... Canisius has allowed at least one run in the first inning in 10 of the last 12 games... Luppens extended his batting streak to five games... Freshman Rohn Pierce threw a scoreless inning of relief and hasn't allowed a run in his last six appearances (11.1 innings)... Zimmer had a multi-walk game for the 13^th time this season and extended his program record to 44 walks on the year... Canisius hasn't hit a home run in the last nine games and has two homers in the last 21 games.