CANISIUS COLLEGE ATHLETICS
MORGANTOWN, W.V. — Canisius goes cold as the visiting Golden Griffins fall to West Virginia, 9-2 Wednesday afternoon at Monongalia County Ballpark in Morgantown, W. Va. The defeat drops Canisius to 20-12 on the season, while WVU improves to 17-17 on the campaign.
The Mountaineers struck first in the bottom of the first as redshirt sophomore Marques Inman drove in fellow classmate, Brandon White, on a sacrifice fly to right field to take the early 1-0 lead.
The Blue and Gold answered right back in the top of the second as junior Canice Ejoh roped a two-run single through the left side, scoring sophomore Jacob Victor and junior Conner Morro.
West Virginia took the lead for good as they added two runs in the third and fourth innings on a two-run single by Inman, a RBI single by redshirt junior Jimmy Galusky and a safety squeeze by junior Braden Zarbniksy to hold the 5-2 advantage after four innings.
The home squad put the game away for good in the seventh as they added four more insurance runs on an RBI groundout, a sacrifice fly and two-run triple by freshman Tyler Doanes to close out the 9-2 victory.
Sophomore right-hander Isaiah Kearns picked up the win, putting in four innings of work, allowing two runs on five hits, while fanning eight batters.
For Canisius, junior righty Andrew Kneussle received the mid-week start on the mound as he was saddled with the loss after only going three innings and surrendering three runs on four hits. Five other Golden Griffins pitchers saw action in relief of Kneussle with junior Alvin Vega seeing the longest action of two full-innings, allowing one run on one hit.
GAME NOTES
• Redshirt senior Christ Conley‘s on-base streak now stands at 22 straight games with his two hits and two walks on Wednesday
• Morro and continued his now 15-game consecutive on-base streak with one hit on Wednesday.
• Senior Ryan Stekl has now appeared in 206 career games, tying him for seventh all-time in school history with Anthony Massicci (’16).
• With his four at-bats on Wednesday, Stekl has amassed 783 career at-bats, the second most in program history, passing Branson Joseph (’09).
UP NEXT
The Griffs return back to the Buffalo for a three-game series with current MAAC leader, Quinnipiac at the Demske Sports Complex. First pitch on April 21 for the doubleheader is set for 2:30 with Sunday’s conclusion starting at noon.
