The Canisius baseball team won its final road game of the 2013 regular season with a 5-3 victory over Youngstown State at Eastwood Field in Niles, Ohio on Tuesday. The Golden Griffins win their fourth straight game and 25th road game of the season to improve to 38-13 overall.
Sophomore Jesse Puscheck was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs, including his first career home run. Junior Jose Torralba recorded two hits in the game while freshman Anthony Massicci reached base four times with a hit and three walks.
Canisius got on the board in the second inning with the leadoff homer from Puscheck. The Griffs added a run in the third, starting when junior Jimmy Luppens was hit by a pitch with one out. After senior Brooklyn Foster worked a walk, Puscheck had an RBI single to put the Griffs up 2-0.
Youngstown State (14-38) tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, but Canisius came right back with three runs in the top of the fifth. Puscheck started the rally with a two-out double to right-center. Junior Shane Zimmer followed with a single to left to regain the lead for the Griffs. After junior Jesse Kelso worked a walk, an RBI single from Torralba put the Griffs up by two. An RBI single from Massicci, the fifth straight Canisius player to reach with two outs, closed out the scoring and put the Griffs up 5-2.
The Penguins got one back in the botom of the fifth, but that would end the scoring for each team in the game. Sophomore Rohn Pierce (3-1) picked up the win by allowing three runs on eight hits, walking three and striking out four in six innings. The trio of sophomore Eric Stolzenburg, redshirt freshman Iannick Remillard and junior Jon Fitzsimmons each threw a scoreless inning of relief to preserve the victory. Fitzsimmons stuck out two batters in the ninth and picked up his ninth save on the season.
Canisius will close out the regular season with a three-game series against Fairfield University at the Demske Sports Complex. First pitch for Thursday's doubleheader is set for noon.
Notes: The teams played at the stadium of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the Class A short-season affiliate of the Cleveland Indians… Canisius has now won the last four meetings between the teams... Luppens was hit by a pitch twice and now has 17 on the season, tied for second in the program's single-season record book… Canisius had two stolen bases in the game and now has 95 on the season, breaking the single-season record of 94 set in 2009… Fitzsimmons has five saves in the last 19 games after four saves in the first 32 games… Torralba had his third straight two-hit performance.
