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Canisius University Athletics

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Mike DeStefano finishes a swing at the 2022 MAAC Baseball Championship
Dave Schofield '71
7
Winner Arizona ARIZ 38-24
5
Canisius CAN 29-25
Winner
Arizona ARIZ
38-24
7
Final
5
Canisius CAN
29-25
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Arizona ARIZ 2 1 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 7 11 0
Canisius CAN 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 5 8 1

W: Nichols, TJ (6-4) L: Pouliot, Chris (8-3) S: Flanagan, Quinn (1)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Baseball's Season Ends with Loss to Arizona

2CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Canisius baseball team had its season come to a close Sunday at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field with a 7-5 loss to Arizona in the Coral Gables Regional of the 2022 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.
 
Canisius, whose season concludes with a 29-25 record, was led by junior Mike DeStefano, who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI. Sophomore Max Grant, graduate student Mike Steffan and senior Dylan Vincent drove in one run apiece in the contest.
 
Blake Paugh and Mac Bingham, Arizona's No. 8 and No. 9 hitters, went a combined 5-for-8 at the plate with four runs scored and two RBI. Paugh hit a pair of solo home runs while Bingham added a double for the Wildcats (38-24).
 
Junior Chris Pouliot was the starting pitcher for the Golden Griffins, pitching 4.2 innings, allowing six runs on eight hits. The southpaw walked five and struck out four during his outing.

Sophomore Levi Abbott was the lone arm used out of the bullpen for Canisius, striking out five batters in 4.1 innings of work. He yielded one run on three hits in his outing.
 
TJ Nichols was the winning pitcher for Arizona, improving his record to 6-4. Nichols scattered five hits in his five-inning outing. He gave up three runs, walked two batters and struck out four.
 
Quinn Flanagan earned his first save after pitching the final 1.1 innings for Arizona, who advances in the elimination bracket and will play Ole Miss or Miami at 7 p.m. Sunday.
 
GAME RECAP
Chase Davis opened the scoring in the top of the first with a two-run home run, giving the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead.
 
Arizona increased its lead in the second, 3-0, behind Paugh's first home run.
 
Graduate student Gibson Krzeminski led off the bottom of the second with a single before scoring thanks to a balk and a pair of wild pitches.
 
Following a leadoff walk and a single by Arizona in the fourth, Nik McClaughry hit a three-run home run to left field that extended the Wildcats' lead to 6-1.
 
Canisius scored four unanswered runs between the fifth and sixth innings, cutting its deficit to 6-5.
 
Steffan and Vincent logged RBI singles in the fifth before DeStefano added an RBI single in the sixth. Grant trimmed the Griffs' deficit to 6-5 on an RBI double down the right-field line, scoring DeStefano from first base.
 
Paugh's second solo blast of the game came in the seventh, clearing the scoreboard in left field and landing on the track adjacent to the ballpark.
 
Sophomore Carlin Dick led off the Griffs' half of the eighth with a double to the right-center field gap, hoping to spark a Canisius comeback. After the leadoff double, Arizona's pitching induced a pair of flyouts and a groundout to evade danger.
 
Canisius could not get a ninth-inning rally going as Flanagan set down the Griffs in order with a pair of groundouts and a flyout to end the game.
 
Head Coach Matt Mazurek's Postgame Comments
"I'm proud of these guys. They fought, they were in it and never out of it. [We] got down a little bit early and they fought back. That's been us all year long and these guys just kept doing it. Never out of the fight, didn't matter who, didn't matter when, didn't matter how. We gave it our best effort here today and just came up short.
  
"It's a confident group and it started in the first meeting of the year. We had to start believing that we could get here and it didn't matter who the opponents would be. We had to see ourselves on this stage and these guys did an amazing job of doing that. They just kept at it game after game. No matter if we lost to an RPI sub-200 team or an RPI sub-50 team. They kept going, improving, and learning day in and day out. For them to come and do this on this stage, super proud of them. It's the confidence, the belief they have in one another. It was awesome."
 
GAME NOTES
• Sunday was the first meeting between Canisius and Arizona on the baseball diamond and marked the Griffs' second-ever contest over a Pac-12 opponent (Oregon in NCAA Tournament in 2015).
• Max Grant, with his sixth-inning RBI double, became the second Canisius player in program history with a 90-hit season, joining Connor Panas (92 in 2015).
• Junior outfielder Mike DeStefano was named to the Coral Gables All-Regional Team. DeStefano batted .667 (6-for-9) with four runs scored and two RBI during the Griffs' two games. 
 
SEASON NOTES
• The 392 runs scored by Canisius this season were the eighth-most in program history.
• Canisius mustered 572 hits this season, ranking as the seventh-highest in a season.
• Thanks to Grant and Dick's doubles on Sunday, the Griffs finished the year with 89 doubles, which entered the top-10 in a season.
• The 18 triples are tied for the sixth-most in a season, joined by 1982, 2012 and 2021.
• Canisius hit 52 home runs this year, the fourth-most hit in a season.
• As a team, the Griffs drew 258 walks, standing as the sixth-most in a campaign.
• The Griffs were hit by 87 pitches this season, the eighth-most in a year.
• Canisius' pitching staff combined for a 9.57 strikeout-per-9-inning ratio this season, breaking the program record by 1.07 points (8.50 in 1964).
• The 12 saves by the Canisius pitching staff are tied for the sixth-most in a season (2015 and 2019).
• Canisius finished the year with a program-record 495 strikeouts, besting the previous record by 41 (444 in 2015).
• DeStefano finished the season with 60 runs scored, tied for the sixth-most in a season. He is the first Griff with 60-plus runs in a season since Connor Panas had 67 in 2015.
• Grant finished the year with six triples, tied for the third-most in a season by a Canisius hitter with Jesse Kelso (2012).
• Grant also finished the year with a .398 batting average, the third-highest in a single season. His .489 on-base percentage is the seventh-highest in a campaign and his 1.135 OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage) is the eighth-best by a Griff.
• Mike Steffan concludes the season with 59 RBI, ranking as the seventh-most in a season.
• DeStefano's 22 steals were tied for the second-most in a season, joining Kyle Domogala (2000) and Sean Jamieson (2011). Vincent also added 21 steals, tied for the fifth-most in a season (Anthony Massicci in 2016).
• DeStefano and Vincent were the first Canisius tandem with 20-plus steals in the same season.
• Pitchers Matt Duffy and Chris Pouliot had eight wins apiece this season. They are the third pair of teammates with 8-win seasons, joining Garrett Cortright and Alex Godzak in 2013 and Rohn Pierce and Godzak in 2014.

For complete coverage of Canisius baseball, please follow @GriffsBaseball on Instagram and Twitter.

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