FISHKILL, N.Y. -- The No. 2 seeded Canisius baseball team dropped its first game of the 2015 MAAC Baseball Championship to the third-seeded Quinnipiac Bobcats, 6-1, at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, N.Y., Thursday afternoon. With the loss, Canisius will play the winner of the Monmouth-Marist contest at 7 p.m. tonight, and the loser of that game will be eliminated from the tournament. Quinnipiac's win advances the Bobcats to the next round of the MAAC Championship, where the team will meet No. 4 seed Siena Friday at noon. 

The game began as a pitchers' duel, with both hurlers limiting the opposing offense. However Canisius starter Alex Godzak ran into trouble in the top of the sixth inning, which propelled Quinnipiac to victory.

Godzak, in the third start of his career in the MAAC Tournament, worked 5.1 innings and allowed seven hits, three earned runs and fanned two in the outing. Robbie Hitt started for the Bobcats and pitched an effective seven innings, limiting the Griffs to just one run on four hits while fanning seven.

In the top of the sixth, Quinnipiac loaded the bases with three-straight singles before Louis Iannotti put the Bobcats on the scoreboard first with an RBI-single that drove in a pair of runs. Robert Pescitelli knocked in another run with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, before Godzak was pulled. Senior hurler Brandon Bielecki came on in relief of Godzak and closed out the frame, but the damage was done.

Canisius trailed 5-0 before the Griffs tallied a run in the bottom-half of the seventh on a sacrifice-fly by senior Connor Panas. Panas and fellow senior Jesse Puscheck had a pair of hits for the Griffs in the losing effort.

Quinnipiac ended the game with 11 hits, as Vincent Guglietti led the way with three base-knocks in the winning cause for the Bobcats. Iannotti went 2-for-2 with three RBIs as well for Quinnipiac (29-25).

Following Godzak's departure Bielecki came on and pitched 2.2 innings and allowed three earned runs and four hits. Mike Elwood came on in the ninth and worked a scoreless final frame, as he fanned two in the outing.

Canisius (29-28) will meet either Monmouth or Marist in the tournament's second elimination game of the day, with first pitch set for 7 p.m. Thursday night. The winner of Thursday night's game will advance in the elimination bracket to meet top-seed Rider, which lost to Siena on Wendesday night.

Game Notes: This marked the second-straight year Canisius and Quinnipiac have met in the MAAC Baseball Championship event, with each team winning a game... Gozdak's 5.1 innings of work was his second longest career MAAC Tournament appearance - he went 6.1 innings in a win over Fairfield last year … With his two hits in the game, Panas extended his team lead in hits in the MAAC Tournament to 19 during his career… With the Griffs heading to the elimination game tonight at 7 p.m., Canisius is 7-6 all-time in elimination games under head coach Mike McRae… Canisius swept Marist in the regular season, and the Griffs have not lost to the Red Foxes since 2013... Canisius dropped two of three games in a regular-season series against Monmouth earlier this year.