The Marist baseball team once again faced rival Canisius College in another Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) matchup on Sunday. The Red Foxes would unfortunately fall to the Golden Griffins, with the game ending in a final score of 8-6.
On the beautiful but windy morning and afternoon, Canisius quickly jumped out to a lead. Senior Mark McKenna was the first batter that sophomore Alex Pansini faced, and McKenna took him deep to right field, allowing the speedster to start the game with a triple.
After Jacob Victor’s RBI infield single, redshirt junior William Krull blasted a two-run homerun to left field. By the time Marist grabbed their bats, they were down 3-0.
The game stayed quiet until the fourth inning when the Red Foxes finally found their groove. It all started when redshirt junior Tyler Kapuscinski singled to right field. After advancing to third base on two groundouts, Kapuscinski was 90-feet away from scoring with two outs in the inning.
Marist then converted a two-out rally. Senior Frankie Gregoire put Marist’s first run on the board when he doubled. Sophomore Reece Armitage followed his footsteps by crushing an RBI double. Freshman catcher Niko Amory joined in on the action by producing an RBI single. Marist tied the game at three after the fourth inning.
The Red Foxes jumped to a one-run lead over Canisius in the bottom of the fifth when Kapuscinski added on to his great game and year. He crushed a ball to right-center field for his third homerun of the year.
“I’m not going to change my focus, I just need to keep giving myself opportunities to help our team win,” Kapuscinski said. “I need to continue to help other guys out who are struggling and get more wins.”
Marist did not hold the lead for long though. Canisius quickly tied the game in the sixth inning. Junior Stephen Bennett tripled to right field to start the inning. Right fielder Brian Hart was not able to make the catch at the wall, as the ball bounced off his glove. It seemed wind played a factor.
After Bennett’s triple, left fielder Cole Hollins tied the game at four when he hit an RBI single up the middle.
Marist missed a golden opportunity in the bottom of that inning when sophomore Nick Cantone grounded out to pitcher David Yankowski, leaving runners in scoring position.
The seventh inning was a good one for Canisius who re-gained their lead. In the bottom of the inning they easily breezed through the Foxes order in a 1-2-3 inning.
The eighth inning was very eventful as Canisius was able to tack on three more runs and take the lead 8-4. Marist responded in their own way in the bottom of the inning when Gregoire blasted a two-run homerun to center field. However, Marist had another missed opportunity when Anthony Lazar stranded runners were on second and third. Lazar lined out to center fielder McKenna and the score sat at 8-6 in favor of Canisius.
Marist gave themselves a chance to end the game in walk-off fashion, but unfortunately weren’t able to get the job done and went down in a 1-2-3 inning to end the game with a final score of 8-6.
“Although losing the series was tough, it is reassuring to know we can hang with Canisius, we could go toe-to-toe with them any day,” Kapuscinski said. “We definitely gave them way too many opportunities for us to be successful in the games we lost, but there is no doubt in my mind we could beat them anytime we play them.”
Marist is back in action Wednesday, April 17 when they face off in a non-conference game with Binghamton University.
Edited by Meaghan Roche
Photo by Shannon Tierney