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Canisius University Athletics

#Griffs The Official Home of the Canisius University Golden Griffins | #Griffs
Stephen Bennett
Jenna Hiscock
13
Canisius CAN 4-9
17
Winner Dayton UD 3-8-1
Canisius CAN
4-9
13
Final
17
Dayton UD
3-8-1
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Canisius CAN 0 2 0 3 0 6 0 2 0 13 15 5
Dayton UD 0 6 1 3 0 3 1 3 X 17 17 2

W: IMBRIANO (1-0) L: Kennedy, Jared (0-2) S: HUGHES (1)

2
Canisius CAN 4-10
6
Winner Dayton UD 4-8-1
Canisius CAN
4-10
2
Final
6
Dayton UD
4-8-1
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Canisius CAN 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 1
Dayton UD 0 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 X 6 9 1

W: PLETKA (1-2) L: Fron, Andrew (0-1)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Baseball Drops Both Ends of Doubleheader to Dayton

After losing an offense-heavy opener, 17-13, to Dayton, the Canisius baseball team dropped the second game of the doubleheader by a 6-2 score Sunday afternoon at Woerner Field at DP&L Stadium in Dayton, Ohio.
 
The Golden Griffins now sit at 4-10 on the season, while the Flyers moved to 4-8-1 in 2019 with the sweep.
 
The Griffs were led by a pair of multi-hit games from Andy Leader, as the junior totaled four hits, two runs scored and a triple over the two games. Fellow juniors Stephen Bennett and Jacob Victor had career performances, as Bennett knocked in a career-high five RBI off a home run and a triple, while Victor tallied a career-high three hits, including a double, to go with two RBI.
 
Game One Recap
Canisius opened the game by scoring a pair of runs in the second, as a William Krull single set up Victor to plate the runner with a double. Victor then scored on the next at-bat thanks a ground out by Bennett, giving the Griffs an early 2-0 lead.
 
Dayton answered back loudly in the bottom of the second, putting up a six-spot in the run column. Eddie Pursinger started the frame with a lead-off home run. Riley Tirotta followed with a single and later scored on a Takahiro Yamada one-out double. Then, with two outs, Mitchell Garrity reached on an error, scoring Yamada, and then scored himself on Connor Echols single. The Flyers were not done, as singles by Alex Brickman and Jay Curtis brought Echols in, while walks to Pursinger and Tirotta brought Brickman home.
 
Dayton added another run in the third when Brickman flied out to center with the bases loaded, scoring Yamada for a 7-2 lead.
 
Canisius chipped away at the Flyers' lead in the fourth, putting together five straight hits to score three runs. Leader started off the sequence with a one-out single, sophomore Jake Zurat followed with a double down the line, and senior Joseph Preziuso singled home Leader for the first run of the inning. Junior Jake Burlingame and senior Conner Morro then collected RBI singles, bringing in Zurat and Preziuso to make it 7-5.
 
The Flyers matched the Griffs' three-run output in the bottom of the fourth to build a 10-5 lead. After another Canisius error put Flyers on second and third, Yamada drove in two runs on a single and came around to score two batters later when Garrity singled.
 
The Griffs took the lead again in the sixth with its own six-run inning as Krull started the rally with a bases-loaded single with two outs to bring in two runs. Victor followed with an RBI single and Bennett cleared the bases with a three-run home run, putting Canisius in front at 11-10.
 
Dayton regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth, as a Canisius error with the bases full allowed Brickman to reach safely and for the Flyers to score two runs. Curtis immediately followed with a sacrifice fly that made the game 13-11 in UD's advantage.
 
Michael Cleary extended the lead to 14-11 in the seventh, scoring on a wild pitch.
 
Canisius threatened again in the eighth when Krull scored Morro on a ground out. Victor singled to keep the inning going and Bennett tripled to bring home Victor and bring the score to 14-13.
 
Dayton gave itself three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when it loaded the bases before Benjamin Blackwell drove in one of the runners with a single and Echols knocked two more in with his own single.

Corey Imbriano earned the win for Dayton, pitching 1.2 innings and allowing one unearned run, while Ben Hughes picked the save for his 1.2 innings of work, giving up an unearned run and three hits. Starting the game for the Flyers, Tyler Henry went 3.1 frames, giving up five runs on nine hits.
 
Senior reliever Jared Kennedy suffered the loss, going 1.2 innings and allowing three runs, one of which was earned. Junior Carson Perkins opened for Canisius, lasting 1.2 innings and allowing six runs.

Victor finished the game with three hits and two RBI, while Burlingame, Morro, Krull, Bennett and Leader all had two hits. Bennett ended the first half of the doubleheader with five RBI and Krull was behind him with three RBI. For Dayton, Yamada went 3-for-4, scoring five runs and driving in three more.
 
Game Two Recap
Dayton started the scoring in the later game with a four-run second inning. A solo home run by Tirotta and a two-run triple by Blackwell scored the first three runs, while Echols added another off a single.
 
Brickman extended the Dayton lead in the fourth by singling home Echols, who doubled to get on, making it a 5-0 contest.
 
Canisius rallied in the fifth for two runs, beginning with a Morro bases-loaded walk and followed by a Mike Steffan sacrifice fly that scored freshman Kyle Kush.
 
The Flyers tacked on another insurance run later in the game, as Brickman once again singled to score Echols in the eighth for the sixth Dayton run.
 
Dayton starter Cole Pletka picked up the victory in the nightcap, going five innings and allowing two runs on two hits. Dylan Keller and Kyle LaCalameto combined to throw four no-hit innings of relief for the Flyers.
 
Freshman right-hander Andrew Fron was saddled with the loss in his first collegiate start, giving up four runs in 1.2 innings. Junior Kyle Warner threw 2.2 innings of one-run ball, while junior Jarod Burmaster shut the Flyers down through three innings and freshman David Yankowski surrendered an unearned run in his one inning on the hill.
 
Head Coach Matt Mazurek's Postgame Comments
"It was the same song and dance: freebies and errors. We showed much better at the plate in game one but could not get a stop after putting runs on the board. Some guys really swung it today. Game two was another lackluster performance."
 
"Overall on the weekend, we need to really lock in and take action to fix the mistakes we made. We let too many opportunities slip away in a weekend that should have had a better outcome."
 
Game Notes
• The doubleheader served as 11th and 12th all-time meetings between Canisius and Dayton, with the Flyers extending their lead in the series, 9-3.
• Perkins made his first start of the 2019 season on Sunday, and his first start overall since May 2, 2018 at Niagara.
• Morro's third-inning single in game one and first-inning walk in game two extended his on-base streak to 23 games, continuing a streak that began May 17, 2018 against Marist.
• Leader's two hits in both games give him three multi-hit games on the season. His triple was also his first as a Griff.
• Zurat's fourth-inning double in game one marked his first hit of 2019 and first extra-base hit of his career.
• Game one's 13 Canisius runs is the most since scoring 17 against Niagara on April 25, 2018.
• Game one's 17 runs against were the most given up by the Griffs since Monmouth plated 17 on April 1, 2017.
 
Up Next
Canisius heads to Bloomington, Ind., where it will face Indiana in a four-game set March 15-17, beginning with a 6:05 p.m. first pitch on Friday. The teams are slated to play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 12:05 p.m., before concluding the series Sunday with a matinee game at 1:05 p.m.
 
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