Making his first appearance since May 9, Trey McLaughlin tied his season high with 11 strikeouts as the senior paced Fairfield to an 8-2 victory over Canisius in an elimination game at the 2021 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Baseball Championship Friday at Alumni Diamond in Fairfield, Conn.
The Golden Griffins saw their season come to a a close as they ended the 2021 campaign with a 20-16 overall mark and a 17-13 record in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play.Â
Top-seeded Fairfield (37-2, 33-1 MAAC) advanced to the championship series versus the No. 3 seed Rider.Â
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Canisius was only able to muster three hits off the Stags starter in his 6.1 innings of work. Two of the hits came off the bat of Max Grant.
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Andrew Fron started for Canisius and was pulled in the second inning after allowing five hits and two runs.
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Fairfield scored first in the opening frame on an RBI single by Mike Caruso. The Stags added another run in the next inning on another RBI single by Mike Handal.
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Levi Abbott relieved Fron and retired the first five batters he faced, four of which grounded out. His outing lasted three innings, allowing two hits and three runs while walking two and fanning a pair.
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Canisius cut into Fairfield's lead in the fifth with a sacrifice fly by Mike Mazzara that scored Grant to make it a 3-1 contest.
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Fairfield countered with five unanswered runs — two in the fifth and three in the sixth — taking an 8-1 lead.
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Mike Steffan closed out the scoring in the top of the ninth, hitting a two-out solo home run to determine the six-run final margin.Â
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Head Coach Matt Mazurek's Postgame Comments
"Today we just did not get the offense we wanted. They had a guy on the mound that did a good job and we could not counter. On the mound, we gave them too many free opportunities and they took advantage of it. It was just not our day."
"I commend our group for accomplishing what they did this season. They rode a roller coaster of a little bit of everything and did a great job of controlling what they could and being ready to answer the bell when they were called upon."
"I am extremely proud of this group and team and thankful for the seniors for the mark they have stamped on our program. The program is defined by the people that come through it and this group represented us to the fullest. I love each and every one of these guys and appreciate everything they do."
GAME NOTES
• With his two hits, Grant recorded his 10th multi-hit performance of the season. It is his sixth game with two-plus hits in his last 11 appearances.
• Jake Burlingame had his 28-game on-base streak snapped after going hitless in four at-bats.
• Steffan hit his third home run of the season, all of which came in the his last 10 appearances.
• Ryan Boyer concluded the season with the second-best strikeouts per nine innings figure (12.03) in a single season, trailing only Tyler Smith's 12.14 mark in 2015. Boyer also finished with the fifth-fewest walks per nine innings (1.47) total in a single season.
• Joining Boyer in the fewest walks per nine innings category is Kyle Warner, who had the seventh-best figure (1.59).
• Jacob Victor recorded six sacrifice flies this season, which is tied for the second-most in a single season.
• Canisius finished the season with a .407 on-base percentage, which finishes as the seventh-best in program history.
• With 18 triples this year, the total is tied for the sixth-most in a single season.
• As a staff, Canisius issued an average of 3.36 walks per nine innings, standing as the third-lowest on record. The team also posted 7.85 strikeouts per nine, which is the fifth-most in a year.
• The team's .975 fielding percentage (29 errors in 1172 fielding opportunities) is the best in program history and the 29 errors committed is the third-fewest in a season.
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