Anyone who has played baseball in the northeast knows how tough it is to transition from indoor gym practices to the playing field. The St. Bonaventure Bonnies(0-4, 0-0) and Niagara Purple Eagles(1-7, 0-0) have really struggled with the transition early while the Canisius Golden Griffs(4-4, 0-0) have been much more impressive.
Griffs continue .500 start
The Golden Griffs earned their second-straight series split having won the first and last game of each series. Canisius struck early on Friday afternoon plating two runs in the first inning as Morehead State’s starter struggled early. Luke Helton locked in for the next few innings before the Griffs chased him from the game in the 6th inning as they took a 4-0 lead.
After a lock down outing from Friday night starter sophomore Matt Duffy, who allowed just two hits across six innings, the team went to the bullpen. The Eagles get within three runs before the Griffs added five more runs in the last two innings to earn an 11-4 victory. Redshirt freshman Josh Niles led Canisius with three RBI.
After seeing no action in 2021, Niles is hitting .300 with seven RBI across 20 at-bats. Two of those RBI were the winning runs in Canisius’ Sunday win. Niles and senior shortstop Kyle Kush combined to go 5-for-9 with three RBI and two runs scored from the seventh and eighth spot in the batting order.
Both games of the Saturday double-header were winnable, but slipped out of the grasp of the Griffs. Canisius led Game 1 3-0 heading into the 5th-of-7 innings before blowing the lead and falling 4-3 in extra innings. In Game 2, Canisius gave up a four-spot in the 2nd and could never claw back.
The Griffs could have came away with another win, but their pitching performances over the weekend should leave them very optimistic heading deeper into the season. Canisius’ starting pitchers combined for a 2-1 record while allowing Morehead State batters to hit just .159 across 20 innings.
For a second-straight week, a Griffs pitcher has won Rookie of the Week in the MAAC. Freshman Aaron Duffy followed up his brother’s start from Friday by going five innings and allowing just one run on one hit. The Burlington, ON native has a 3.60 ERA in two career starts.
The Griffs also earned Player of the Week in consecutive weeks as Max Grant finished the weekend with a .643 batting average, two home runs, and seven runs scored. One of the home runs and four of those runs scored came in Canisius’ Friday victory.
Canisius is back in action today in Morgantown as they take on the West Virginia Mountaineers(5-2, 0-0) for a midweek contest. It will be the Mountaineers’ home opener after an impressive start to the season with a series win at Charlotte and two wins over nationally ranked Central Michigan. You can catch the game at 3 P.M. on ESPN+.
Purple Eagles squander opportunities
The Purple Eagles played a much closer series this weekend against the UNC Asheville Bulldogs(3-5, 0-0), but only came away with the victory on Friday. Niagara was able to strike first on Friday, but squandered a few chances to grow their lead. After retaking the lead in the 4th, Niagara added five runs across the 6th and 7th innings including three home runs.
The bats went dead for the double-header on Saturday as the Purple Eagles were only able to scratch one run across. Between the two games, Niagara had just 10 hits. That hurt the team immensely as their starting pitchers allowed just three earned runs in those games.
The finale of the series was a back-and-forth affair until the Bulldogs scored two in the 8th to earn an 8-6 victory. Both teams left a bunch of runners on base, but the Purple Eagles just did not have enough timely play to earn the series split.
The team hitting needs to pick up to aid the pitching as they are hitting just .208 as a team. Only Josh Marchese is hitting above .300 and he has also added two solo home runs to his statline.
Niagara has no midweek game this week and will be back in action this weekend as they take on the UMBC Retrievers(1-5, 0-0). The series is slated for four games starting Friday at 2 P.M. before a double-header Saturday and the finale at noon on Sunday. Niagara leads the all-time series 2-0.
Tough start for Bonnies
St. Bonaventure’s opening weekend left a lot to be desired for Bonas fans. The Bonnies came back in their first game with the Marshall Thundering Herd(5-3, 0-0) to force extra innings before falling 11-7.
The game was tied in the bottom of the 9th with no outs and a runner to replace the scorer on second base. Three-straight strikeouts took the game to the 10th where the Bonnies allowed four runs with 2 outs for the loss.
Saturday’s double-header went even worse for Bonas as they had just four hits in the first game before going down 9-0 in the second game before their third at-bat. The Merrimack Warriors(2-2, 0-0) ended up winning 5-2 and 9-1 respectively. In their other two games on the weekend, Merrimack was outscored a combined 25-3.
Sunday was no better for St. Bonaventure as they allowed more runs(four) in the first two innings, than the team had in total hits for the entire game(three). Falling behind early is never good in baseball, but we see comebacks all the time in collegiate baseball with the amount of variance in most teams’ bullpens, so the lack of fight early from the Bonnies is a bit concerning.
St. Bonaventure currently has only two everyday starters hitting above .300 as the team as a whole is hitting just .220 through four games. That can obviously improve as the team gets used to live pitching, but it is not the start you want for a team that returned some solid veteran bats. Brendyn Stillman is trying to lead by example with his .308 average and he currently has the team’s only home run.
The Bonnies will look for their first win of the season Wednesday at 6:30 P.M. as they take on the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles(6-2, 0-0). Pitching was the biggest question mark entering the season for St. Bonaventure and it let them down over the weekend. We will see if they can step up in a tough midweek game versus a quality opponent. If not, it might be a long season down in Olean.
Be sure to stay tuned for weekly updates on all our WNY baseball programs throughout the spring and the Road to Omaha! You can follow me over on Twitter at @TyBuffalo and everything Trainwreck at @Trainwrecksprts.
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