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Mike DeStefano makes a play at shortstop against Niagara
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5
Canisius CAN 4-8
14
Winner LIBERTY LIBERTY 10-1
Canisius CAN
4-8
5
Final
14
LIBERTY LIBERTY
10-1
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Canisius CAN 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 5 8 3
LIBERTY LIBERTY 0 7 1 4 1 1 0 0 X 14 13 0

W: ALBA, Max (2-0) L: Pouliot, Chris (1-1)

Game Recap: Baseball |

No. 20 Liberty Defeats Baseball to Sweep Series

Twelve unanswered runs from the second to fourth innings lifted No. 20 Liberty to a 14-5 victory over Canisius in non-conference baseball action at Worthington Field at Liberty Baseball Stadium in Lyncburg, Va., on Sunday afternoon.
 
With the victory, the nationally-ranked Flames swept the three-game series from the Golden Griffins.
 
Stephen Hill and Derek Orndorff each drove in three runs in the victory. Orndorff went 2-for-4 at the plate and scored three times while clubbing a pair of home runs, increasing his home run total to a Division I-leading 10 round trippers. Aaron Anderson added a pair of doubles for the Flames (10-1), who have won their last 10 games.
 
Junior Mike DeStefano and sophomore Max Grant, the first two hitters in Canisius' lineup Sunday, combined to go 5-for-10 at the plate with four runs scored. DeStefano hit a home run and Grant added a double for the Golden Griffins (4-8), who have now dropped their last four games.
 
Max Alba earned the victory for Liberty, pitching the first 4.1 innings for the Flames, allowing five runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out six.
 
Junior Chris Pouliot could not escape the second inning for the Griffs as he was saddled with the loss after allowing four hits and seven runs – all of which came in the second inning. He walked a pair of Liberty batters while striking out three.
 
GAME RECAP
Canisius jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning behind an RBI groundout by Mike Steffan and a balk that allowed Grant to score from third.
 
The Griffs lead remained intact as Pouliot struck out the side in his first inning of work.
 
Liberty would get the best of Pouliot in the second, scoring seven of its 12 unanswered runs in the frame. Orndorff led off the inning with the first of his two homes run on the day. Additional runs were plated on a bases-loaded walk and three run-scoring singles – two of which drove in a pair of runs.
 
A fielder's choice allowed another Liberty run to score in the third before a four-run fourth put the Flames ahead 12-2.
 
Orndorff hit his Division I-leading 10th home run to start Liberty's four-run inning, blasting a opposite field, two-run shot to right field. An RBI single and a bases-loaded walk enabled the Flames' lead to increase.
 
DeStefano hit his first home run of the season in the fifth, sending a two-run home shot over the right-center field wall to trim the deficit to 12-4. A two-out, bases-loaded walk by Josh Niles plated another Canisius run.
 
Liberty tacked on a run in the home-half of the fifth on a sacrifice fly before an RBI double by Aaron Anderson gave the Flames a 14-5 advantage.
 
Brett Kochanski shined in his appearance out of the bullpen, fanning four of the first five batters he faced. He allowed just one two hits in his 2.2 innings of work.
 
Head Coach Matt Mazurek's Postgame Comments
"We will never beat a ranked opponent with the amount of free opportunities we gave them today. Our offense continued to show sparks of good things against good pitching, but the flow of the game worked against them at times. We now have a good barometer as to where we are and what needs to be done to be where want to be."
 
GAME NOTES
• Sunday was the sixth all-time meeting between Canisius and Liberty. The Flames now own a 4-2 advantage in the series and have won the last four games.
• Mike DeStefano extended his on-base streak to 12 games with his lead-off single. He later hit his second career home run in the fifth, his first since March 7, 2020, at Radford.
• With three hits, Grant now has seven multi-hit performances on the season and has at least three hits in four games this year. In 40 career games, Grant has 17 multi-hit games.
• Freshman Jackson Strong recorded his first collegiate base hit, logging a two-out single in the ninth inning.
• Kochanski has now recorded four-plus strikeouts in four of his five appearances this season.
 
UP NEXT
Canisius will travel to Charleston, S.C., for a three-game series next weekend against Charleston Southern. The series will open next Saturday (March 12) with a doubleheader beginning at 1:30 p.m. from Nielsen Field at CSU Ballpark.
 
For complete coverage of Canisius baseball, please follow @GriffsBaseball on Instagram and Twitter.
 
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