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Canisius University Athletics

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Felix Morin delivers a pitch at NC State on March 1, 2025 at Doak Field
11
Winner Canisius CANISIUS 2-11
2
Merrimack MERRIMAC 4-13-1
Winner
Canisius CANISIUS
2-11
11
Final
2
Merrimack MERRIMAC
4-13-1
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Canisius CANISIUS 0 0 1 5 3 0 1 1 0 11 11 0
Merrimack MERRIMAC 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 8 2

W: Morin, Felix (1-2) L: J. Nichols (1-2)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Baseball Evens Up Series at Merrimack

Home runs from four different batters powered Canisius to a convincing 11-2 win over Merrimack Saturday afternoon in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference baseball action at Warriors Baseball Diamond in North Andover, Mass.

The Golden Griffins evened the series and claimed their first MAAC win with the triumph, moving to 2-11 overall and 1-1 in conference play. Merrimack fell to 4-13-1 on the season and 3-2 in league action.

The Blue and Gold turned in their best all-around performance of the season, with junior LHP Felix Morin earning the win as he went 6.0 innings while striking out seven and allowing just one run. Freshman Brayden Hy had the best performance of his rookie season to date, going 2-for-5 with two runs and three RBI, highlighted by a three-run homer in the fifth inning. Junior outfielder Andrew Marcello also connected on a two-run blast in the fourth inning and redshirt sophomore Thomas Zwirecki and sophomore JC Spinosa both hit solo homers in the contest.

Merrimack starter James Nichols is saddled with the loss after surrendering five unearned runs in 3.2 innings of work. Seven batters recorded a hit for the Warriors but they were unable to capitalize, leaving seven runners stranded.

The Warriors opened the scoring in the second inning as Jayden Hamilton led the inning off with a double and later scored on a squeeze bunt from George Athanasiadis.

Canisius responded in the third, beginning the inning with singles from Hy and junior Owen Silliman. Hy scored on a throwing error to first on a ball put in play by freshman Bennett Cox to knot the score at 1-1.

The Griffs quickly loaded the bases in the fourth before a ball hit by Silliman was mishandled by the Warrior infield, allowing redshirt senior Josh Niles and junior Mason Cisco to score. Zwirecki reached home next with a sacrifice fly from Spinosa and the inning was capped off by a two-run homer from Marcello to stretch the Griffs cushion to 6-1.

The Griffs continued to attack the Warriors pitching in the fifth with Hy barreling a three-run homer to increase the Canisius lead to 9-1. From there, Canisius continued to crush the ball, as Zwirecki and Spinosa hit solo home runs in the seventh and eighth inning, respectively to grow the lead to 11-1.

Senior Aaron Duffy relieved Morin, striking out the side in the seventh and then allowing a solo shot to Frankie Ferrentino in the home half of the eighth to close out the scoring. 

POST GAME COMMENTS FROM HEAD COACH MATT MAZUREK
"We got two great outings on the mound today, Felix was dialed in and Aaron had his stuff working well. Our bats woke up today and we are going to need to be able to do that the rest of the year to be the team we want to be. Tomorrow we need to show up ready to go win the weekend."

GAME NOTES
• Canisius reclaims the all-time series lead with the win, moving to 2-1 over the Warriors.
• The four homers hit by the Griffs were the most in a game since April 13, 2024 when they hit five in a home victory over Siena.
• Both Marcello and Hy hit their first career home runs in the contest. Hy also tallied his first collegiate hit with a single in the third.
• Spinosa has hit home runs in back-to-back games after hitting a solo shot in Friday's game. It marked his fifth career home run and third of the season.
• Zwirecki's home run is his second of the season and second of his career. He also scored three runs, a single game career high.
• Morin's 6.0 innings was the longest outing of the season for the junior and the first time this season Canisius starters have gone six or more innings in back-to-back games.
• Niles went 1-for-3 on the day with two runs scored while Cisco went 1-for-4 with a run scored

UP NEXT
The Griffs conclude their series at Merrimack with the series finale slated for noon start Sunday in North Andover.

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