By Colin Richey
Over the past weekend, the Canisius Golden Griffins traveled to Huntington, West Virginia for a triple header against Marshall, losing two of their three games by one run each, including a walk-off home run in the second game of the series.
In Game 1, Canisius was leading 2-0, thanks to runs from sophomore Jackson Strong in the 2nd and graduate student Dylan Vincent in the 5th.
Marshall stormed back with three runs in the 8th inning, and the Griffs failed to reach home plate in the 9th.
Junior pitcher Matt Duffy struck out eleven batters in the six innings he played, adding to his career total of 178 career strikeouts, which is 10th best in program history.
Game 2 was a heartbreaker for Canisius, losing on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to give Marshall a 6-5 victory.
The Thundering Herd scored two runs in the 1st to take an early 2-0 lead, but Canisius responded thanks to seniors Brennan Chrisholm and Mike DeStefano to tie things at two.
Marshall notched three runs in the 4th inning to jump to a 5-2 lead, but the Griffs responded quickly again, scoring three of their own in the following inning. DeStefano plated sophomore Cole Sebastian thanks to a sacrifice fly to cut the lead down to two runs.
With the bases loaded, graduate student Kyle Kush hit his pitch up the middle for a two-run single, and the game was tied 5-5. After ten runs in the first five innings, the two teams went scoreless until the bottom of the 9th, when Luke Edwards of Marshall sent a pitch from freshman Felix Morin over the left field wall for a walk-off home run.
The Griffs were victorious in Game 3, thanks in large part to the strong pitching from sophomore Peyton Consigli (five strikeouts), senior Tom Peltier (three strikeouts), redshirt sophomore Ethan Hennessy (two strikeouts), and graduate student Brett Kochanski (one strikeout).
Redshirt sophomore Josh Niles gave Canisius a 1-0 lead with his second home run of the season in the 2nd inning. In the fifth inning, the Griffs extended their lead to 3-0, with freshman Mason Cisco scoring on a fielding error, and Kush finding home plate thanks to a groundout to first from junior Carlin Dick.
Canisius was up by as many as four runs, with senior Kenny Dodson reaching home after Kush was walked with the bases loaded. Although Marshall nearly pulled off the comeback, scoring runs in the 6th, 7th, and 9th innings, the Griffs were able to hang onto their early lead and win 4-3.
Canisius travels to Kent, Ohio for a three game series against Kent State this weekend, with games at 3:00 on Friday and Saturday, and a 1:00 start on Sunday.