The No. 2 seeded Canisius College baseball team kept its MAAC championship hopes alive as it defeated sixth-seeded Marist in an elimination game, 5-0, at Dutchess Stadium, in Fishkill, N.Y., Thursday night. With the win Canisius advances to play Rider tomorrow beginning at 3:30 p.m., while Marist has been ousted from the tournament.

J.P. Stevenson had a strong freshman debut to the MAAC tournament as he pitched effectively for three innings. He allowed just one hit in the three frames to go along three strikeouts to earn his first tournament win.

Freshman Tyler Smith saw his first action in the MAAC tournament as he worked 2.2 innings and allowed three hits, but fanned four. Eric Stolzenburg and Iannick Remillard combined for 3.1 innings and allowed just two hits apiece, and held Marist scoreless.

Chris Napolitano got the start for the Red Foxes as he worked 5.0 innings and yielded four hits and five earned runs to take the loss.

The Griffs got on the board first, as two hit batters put a pair runners on. A wild pitch allowed Panas to score, which made it 1-0. Siddall nearly broke the game open a batter later, as he launched a ball towards the right field fence, but Zach Racusin robbed the MAAC Player of the Year of a homerun to end the inning.

Napolitano got into a jam in the second inning as well, as an error and two walks loaded the bases for Canisius. The Marist starter proceeded to run a pitch in on Panas to bring home Jack Massa as the Griffs went up 2-0.

It appeared that the Red Foxes were threatening in the top seventh as Stolzenburg inherited a baserunner with two outs, and yielded a single to put runners at the corners. With Tyler Kirkpatrick at the plate, Stolzenburg induced a chopper back to the mound to get out of the inning unscathed.

The Griffs put a close game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth, as Siddall led off the inning with a double and later came around to score on a throwing error by Napolitano, trying to catch the outfielder as he was headed to third. Both Mike Krische and Cyrus Senior recorded RBI singles later in the inning to cap the three run rally.

Ryan Stekl and Anthony Massicci both led the way in the hit department, notching a pair apiece. When it came to runs the Griffs took advantage of Marist miscues, but Panas, Krische and Senior were the lone Griffs to tally RBI.

Canisius will now advance to play Rider in the next round of the elimination bracket tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. The winner of that game will move on to play again at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES: With the loss and win today Canisius now sits at 30-28 overall … Canisius Improves to 8-6 in elimination games under head coach Mike McRae … The Griffs defeated Marist for a fourth time this season and have won the last seven games against Marist dating back to 2013 … Mike Krische started the game for the first time since  March 30 and recorded his first RBI since March 29, with a single up the middle in the sixth inning.