POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Canisius sophomore Moriah Harris laid down a squeeze bunt with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning that allowed junior Samantha Sharkey to score from third base to lift the Golden Griffins to a 1-0 victory over Fairfield in an elimination game at the 2016 MAAC Softball Championship tournament Thursday afternoon at Marist's Gartland Field. With the win, Canisius (23-31) moves on to meet Monmouth Friday in a second elimination game. That contest will start at 12 p.m.
Sharkey led off the eighth with an infield-single, and she then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by junior Jessica Berzins. After senior Alexis Roman singled to center, pushing Sharkey to third, Harris laid down the game-winning bunt just in front of the plate, allowing Sharkey to slide over the tag of Fairfield catcher Tori Reed to secure the win. The victory in eight innings is the program's second extra-inning win in MAAC Championship history.
Sophomore Madi Weathers went the distance and earned the win in the circle for Canisius after she allowed just four hits to go with four strikeouts and two walks. Weathers threw 108 total pitches in the win for the Blue and Gold, the team's first postseason win under second-year head coach Kim Griffin.
"We had [Samantha] Sharkey at third who has great speed and Moriah [Harris] is really good at getting bunts down, so I thought it was a good time to try and run the squeeze play," Griffin said. "We played with championship-level energy today. We were kind of dead yesterday and we talked about it before the game today. Madi [Weathers] got us out of a jam in the first inning and that really gave us some life. This was a good team win for this program."
In a game that featured 13-combined runners left on base by the two teams, Weathers got out of an early jam in the top-half of the first as the Stags (27-23) loaded the bases with one out. But Weathers responded, getting Fairfield's Angelina McGuire to strike out looking before ending the frame by inducing a ground out. Canisius had runners on the corners in the first and failed to score, and also left two runners on in the third frame as well.
In the eighth inning, Fairfield's Rachel Sieber led off with a base hit, and she later advanced to second, but that was as far as she would move, as Fairfield ended up being shutout in both its losses on Thursday.
Canisius had seven hits in the win, with Roman and Harris each recording two hits apiece for the Blue and Gold. Sharkey also had two hits in the win for Canisius, which posted its first 1-0 victory since April 12, 2015 when the team defeated Marist 1-0 at home – a span of 71 games.
Canisius will meet Monmouth at noon on Friday in the MAAC Championship elimination round. The Griffs and the Hawks played two games at the Demske Sports Complex back on April 30, with Canisius earning a pair of wins. The game on Friday will mark the first postseason meeting between the two programs, with the winner advancing to the elimination round final game against the loser of the Marist-Quinnipiac game. That game is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m., Friday afternoon.
