The Canisius baseball team had its best offensive day of the early season, defeating Murray State 15-5 in the first game of the weekend series at Reagan Field in Murray, Ky. The Golden Griffins improve to 5-4 on the season.

Five Golden Griffins had multi-hit days, led by senior Brooklyn Foster going 3-for-5 with two runs scored, six RBI and two doubles. Leadoff hitter Mike Krische went 2-for-4 with a walk while junior Jesse Kelso was 2-for-5 with three runs scored. Freshman Brett Siddall was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI. Junior Jimmy Luppens reached base four times in five plate appearances, scoring four runs, while sophomore Connor Panas was 2-for-4 with a walk.

Junior Garrett Cortright pitched well for the third consecutive start, allowing one unearned run in seven innings. The Hamburg, N.Y. native improved to 3-0, struck out six and lowered his earned run average to 0.87 through three starts.

Canisius scored three runs in the top of the first, starting the rally with a two-out single from Kelso. After Luppens was hit by a pitch, an RBI single from Siddall and two-RBI double from Foster gave Canisius the 3-0 lead. The Griffs doubled their lead in the third, again getting an RBI single from Siddall and RBI double from Foster to go along with an RBI single from Panas, to take a 6-0 lead.

After Murray State scored once in the bottom of the fifth, Canisius broke the game open with a four-run top of the seventh. Kelso had an RBI single, junior Shane Zimmer had a pinch-hit, two-RBI single and Foster scored Luppens with an RBI groundout. The Racers scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth before Canisius regained control with a five-run top of the ninth. Foster had a two-RBI single, junior Jose Torralba had an RBI single, junior Ryan Coppinger had a pinch-hit, RBI single and Torralba closed out the production by scoring on a balk.

Canisius and Murray State will resume the series on Saturday, with first pitch set for 3 p.m.