CANISIUS COLLEGE ATHLETICS
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Junior Mark McKenna’s sacrifice flies in the sixth and eighth innings helped push Canisius past Fairfield, 5-3 in the Golden Griffins’ home and conference opener Saturday afternoon at the Demske Sports Complex. With the victory, the Blue and Gold improve their record to 12-6 overall and 1-0 in the MAAC, while Fairfield falls to 5-12 and 0-1 in conference play.
The game time temperature hovered around 30 degrees, but Canisius’ bats came out swinging in the first inning as a groundout by junior Canice Ejoh and a single to centerfield from sophomore Stephen Bennett, scoring junior Mark McKenna and redshirt senior Christ Conley, respectively, gave the Griffs an early 2-0 advantage.
Bases loaded walks by Fairfield juniors Tom Ryan and Jack Gethings in the second and fourth innings tied the contest at two apiece.
In the bottom of the fourth frame, Canisius senior Joseph Preziuso singled to right center, driving in juniorConner Morro to put the Griffs back up 3-2.
McKenna’s sacrifice flies in the sixth and eighth innings gave the Golden Griffins a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Sophomore righty Will Frank came in and picked up his first save of the season, but it wasn’t without some angst. After striking out Gethings to start the inning, Frank allowed a single that turned into a double on a fielding error in the outfield. The Grand Island, N.Y. native, struck out the next hitter for the second out of the stanza. Fairfield sophomore Dan Ryan was up next and hit a double into the right center field gap, allowing a run to come across and score, however, Ryan was tagged out as he over slid second base to end the game.
Senior right-hander Charlie Sobieraski toed the rubber for the sixth time this season for Canisius. The 6-foot-5, 235-pounder, lasted 3.2 innings, only allowing two runs on one hit, while striking out five.
Junior left-hander Jared Kennedy relieved Sobieraski, putting in 4.1 innings of work, picking up the victory. The Calgary, Alberta, native surrendered no runs on one hit as he fanned five Stags of his own.
For Fairfield, junior righty Trey McLoughlin was saddled with his fourth defeat of the season as he went five innings, permitting three runs on five hits.
GAME NOTES
• With a single in the seventh inning Saturday, redshirt senior Liam Wilson has reached base in all 18 games this season and 21 times in his last 22 games dating back to last year.
• Conleys’ on-base streak now stands at 10 straight games with his single and base on balls Saturday.
• With two at-bats Saturday, senior Ryan Stekl passes Jose Torralba (’14) for fifth most at-bats in program history with 730.
• Canisius’ 12 strikeouts is the second most strikeouts as a staff this season, one behind the most of 13, set earlier this season versus Ohio State on Feb. 17.
UP NEXT
Canisius concludes the three-game series with Fairfield on Sunday with a doubleheader. First pitch of the twin bill is set for 11 a.m.
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