The
Canisius College baseball team lost its final game of the 2011 regular season,
falling 14-5 to Niagara at the Demske Sports Complex on Friday. The Golden
Griffins close the regular season with a 25-30 record and 12-10 record in the
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Canisius
will play in the first game of the 2011 MAAC Championship on Thursday, at
Waterfront Park in Trenton, N.J. The No. 4 seed Golden Griffins will face No. 1
seed Manhattan in the first round, with first pitch set for 3 p.m.
Niagara
(8-40, 5-19 MAAC) scored twice in the top of the first to take the early 2-0
lead. Canisius scored one in the second and one in the third to tie the game.
Freshman Ryan Coppinger hit his
second homer of the season, a solo shot to right-center in the bottom of the
second. The Griffs knotted the score in the bottom of the third as senior Will Chomicki led off with a triple to
center field. Senior Andrew Russo
followed with a sacrifice fly to score Chomicki and make it 2-2.
Niagara re-took the lead with a five-run
top of the fourth, going up 7-2. Canisius came back with two runs in the bottom
of the inning, getting a two-run homer from freshman Shane Zimmer to make the score 7-4. That would be as close as the
Griffs would get as Niagara scored two in the seventh and four in the eighth to
break the game open.
Junior
Alex Tufts (4-3) took the loss,
allowing three runs in three-plus innings. Four other Golden Griffins pitched
on the day. Niagara starter Joel Klock earned his first win of the season by
allowing five runs in 7.2 innings.
Notes: The
game started at 2:30 p.m. after a two-hour, 30-minute rain delay... The game will
be shown on tape delay on Time Warner SportsNet on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and on
Sunday at 7 p.m... Prior to Friday, Canisius pitchers had allowed one run in the
first inning in the previous nine games combined... Canisius lost for just the
third time in its last 21 MAAC home games in the month of May... Canisius lost to
Niagara for just the fourth time in the last 19 games... Zimmer hit a home run in
each of the last two games of the regular season after not hitting a home run
in the first 53 games of the season... Coppinger had two hits for the third time
in the last four games and has raised his average 27 points in the last 10
games.
