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Canisius University Athletics

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Mike Steffan bats at the 2022 MAAC Baseball Championship
Dave Schofield '71
6
Canisius CAN 29-24
11
Winner Miami (FL) UM 40-18
Canisius CAN
29-24
6
Final
11
Miami (FL) UM
40-18
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Canisius CAN 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 6 12 2
Miami (FL) UM 1 0 3 0 0 0 4 3 X 11 13 3

W: Gage Ziehl (2-2) L: Peltier, Tom (3-3) S: Andrew Walters (14)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Morales' Three Home Runs Aid Miami to Victory Over Baseball

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami's Yohandy Morales went 4-for-4 with three home runs and five RBI, aiding the Hurricanes to an 11-6 victory over Canisius in the first game of the Coral Gables Regional at the 2022 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field on Saturday evening.
 
Morales, who scored four runs in the contest, was joined by CJ Kayfus, Jacob Burke, Zach Levenson and Dorian Gonzalez Jr. with multi-hit performances for the Hurricanes (40-18).
 
Graduate student Mike Steffan and junior Mike DeStefano were the leading hitters for Canisius (29-24), who had its six-game win streak snapped Saturday.
 
Steffan went 3-for-5 with two RBI and DeStefano was 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Senior Trevor Henneman and graduate student Gibson Krzeminski also had two hits apiece for the Golden Griffins.
 
Sophomore Matt Duffy started for Canisius, pitching the first six innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out eight while establishing the MAAC's single-season strikeout record.
 
Gage Ziehl was Miami's pitcher of record, pitching two innings of relief, allowing a hit and striking out a pair.
 
Andrew Walters earned his 14th save for Miami after pitching the final 1.2 innings. He gave up one hit and an unearned run while walking one and striking out three.
 
GAME RECAP
Canisius came out of the gate hot — like the conditions at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field — chasing Miami's starting pitcher, Karsen Ligon, out of the game in the second inning.
 
Ligon allowed six hits to the 11 Canisius batters he faced. In his 1.1 innings, he gave up four runs and issued one walk.
 
The Griffs opened the contest with three consecutive base hits off Ligon. DeStefano drew a 10-pitch at-bat before hitting a bloop single into center field. After another single by sophomore Max Grant, Steffan capped the string of base knocks with an RBI double down the right-field line.
 
Fellow graduate student Vinny Chiarenza recorded an RBI on a fielder's choice to increase the Griffs' lead to 2-0 in the first.
 
Miami cut Canisius' lead in half, 2-1, in the bottom of the first with Morales' two-out solo home run to right-center field.
 
After a flyout opened the second, Henneman hit a solo home run to left field that put the Griffs ahead 3-1. DeStefano and Grant reached base safely before Steffan drove in his second run of the game with an RBI single to right-center field, increasing the Griffs' lead to 4-1.
 
In the third, after the first two Golden Griffin batters were retired, a two-out rally began after Henneman reached on a throwing error by Miami's shortstop. DeStefano (walk) and Grant (hit by pitch) drew free passes to load the bases. Ronaldo Gallo picked off DeStefano at second base, ending Canisius' scoring threat. The Griffs challenged the call but stood after the video review.
 
Miami tied the game in its half of the third on a pair of home runs off the batter's eye. Morales' two-run blast was the Hurricanes' first of the frame before Burke hit a two-out solo homer that tied the game at 4-all.
 
Duffy escaped a fifth-inning jam, ending the frame with a strikeout with runners at the corners. Duffy's punchout was his 122nd, marking the most by a MAAC pitcher in a single season.
 
The Hurricanes bullpen held Canisius in check between the third and sixth innings, not allowing a hit to 17 consecutive batters.
 
While the Hurricanes' bullpen was stymying Canisius' offense, Morales hit his third homer of the night, giving Miami its first lead in the seventh, 6-4. Gonzalez Jr. added two more runs with a single up the middle to give the Hurricanes a four-run advantage.
 
Canisius threatened in the eighth with four of its first five batters reaching safely. Sophomore Carlin Dick was hit by a pitch bookended by singles from Krzeminski and Henneman to load the bases. On a 3-1 count, DeStefano hit an RBI single through the left side of the infield to trim Miami's advantage to 8-5.
 
After DeStefano's RBI single, Miami summoned its closer, Andrew Walters, from the bullpen with the bases loaded. Walters struck out Grant before inducing a flyout in foul territory to end the frame.
 
Miami tacked on three runs in the bottom of the eighth behind a Canisius fielding error with the bases loaded and a two-run single by Levenson to give the Hurricanes an 11-5 lead.
 
Head Coach Matt Mazurek's Postgame Comments
"It was a hard-fought game. Our plan offensively was to come out swinging and I said if this group comes out swinging, we're going to shock some people and they came out swinging. We got a great start out of Matt Duffy on the mound. We failed to execute in certain situations to get us over the hump. We were right there in it but we didn't get there.
 
"I'm not going to go to fatigue on [what went wrong in the game]. I think we lacked execution in certain spots. [Miami's] a good team, they have good players. They executed, we didn't and that allowed them to get the upper hand. Our guys fought, kept fighting, and did what we could.
 
"[Miami] has a strong staff. The staff has some [velocity] that we haven't seen up to this year. We've seen them a couple times with West Virginia and Liberty, but their staff top-to-bottom has good stuff. When you don't see it all year, it surprises you but felt the guys made some adjustments as time went on."
 
GAME NOTES
• Saturday was the first meeting between Canisius and Miami on the baseball diamond.
• Canisius is now 6-14 all-time against active teams from the ACC. This year the Griffs are 2-3 against ACC opponents (2-2 vs. Pitt, 0-1 vs. Miami).
• Duffy surpassed Monmouth's Trey Dombroski (120 this year), Niagara's Dan Griffin (120 in 2005) and Niagara's Matt Brash (121 in 2019) for the most strikeouts by a MAAC pitcher in a single season.
• Grant recorded one hit on Saturday to increase his season total to 89. He is now tied with Steve McQuail (89 in 2010) for the second-most in a season by a Golden Griffin batter and is three shy of matching Connor Panas' program record set in 2015.
• DeStefano, after logging three hits Saturday, has 83 on the year and is tied for the sixth-most in a season with Ian Choy (83 in 2010).
• DeStefano (12 games) and Henneman (7 games) extended their career-long hitting streaks on Saturday.
• Steffan, with his two RBI, increased his season total to 58, which stands as the seventh-most in a season by a Golden Griffin batter.
 
UP NEXT
Canisius will play the loser of the second game of the Coral Gables regional between Ole Miss and Arizona on Sunday at 11 a.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

For more information on the Canisius baseball program, follow @GriffsBaseball on Instagram and Twitter.
 
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