First pitch: Baseball and softball are back on the diamond

By Andrew Nowel, Sports Layout Editor

Canisius baseball and softball are back for the 2026 season and the Griffs are ready to step up to the plate. As they take the field for a new season, there are a lot of new faces on both teams that will become big factors on and off the field.

The baseball team returns over 20 players, but Head Coach Matt Mazurek pointed to the new additions to the Griffs, including the 11 freshmen that joined the team. “This year our freshmen class is strong and you’ll see them get a lot of opportunities early; more so on the mound than in the field. On the mound, you’ll see guys like Trent Rudge, a strong backend pitcher for us, who has some low 90s stuff with a strong slider, and another one is Mark Rogers, a left-handed pitcher out of Canada, who is extremely confident and was in a battle for a starting spot,” said Mazurek on Wednesday. 

As for the veterans, the Griffs remain confident in Felix Morin, who will be given the ball on opening day against Appalachian State. The senior will lead a pitching staff looking for better numbers in 2026, after the team’s worst year since the abbreviated 2020 season with a 7.84 ERA.

The Griffs flourished in the field last season, the team was third best in the MAAC with just 61 errors in 2025. The combination of juniors JC Spinosa at shortstop and Eric Weeks at second base were one of the best double play pairs in collegiate baseball, and Mazurek noted that the duo has gotten even better this offseason. “They’ve built a really good chemistry this offseason, and I’ve been on them about being quick and doing things the right way, not the flashy way, and they’ve bought into that,” said Mazurek. 

Redshirt junior catcher Thomas Zwirecki and senior outfielders Owen Silliman and Andrew Marcello round out the veteran lineup that Mazurek gets ready to send out this weekend against Appalachian State as the Griffs begin their season in North Carolina.

On the other side of the left field foul line at the Demske, the softball team enters a new era in the program’s history as Head Coach Joe Gierlak recently became the third head coach in program history. Gierlak replaced Kim Griffin, who stepped down after coaching the team for 11 seasons, leading them to four consecutive MAAC Championship games and winning the conference title in 2022.

Gierlak, after serving as an assistant for the 2025 season, moved into the head coaching role with a very young team. Only two seniors remain on the roster, but the junior class is ready to take the leadership step that Gierlak is looking for. “Manchy and Liv, especially, have shown that they can lead this team, and you can tell the freshmen and the younger girls feed off that,” said Gierlak. Referring to juniors Olivia Manchester and Liv Herrington, the pitching staff looks to continue the success that the program, historically, has had in the circle.

Growing pains were a constant theme that Gierlak mentioned in Wednesday’s interview which is a normal thing that any young team faces, but Gierlak is eager to see how the Griffs do in the February part of their schedule. “Sometimes with freshmen, you don’t know what you’re going to get, especially when it comes to gameplay. They can surprise you in a lot of ways since you haven’t seen them play for your program, and there’s a lot of learning that goes with that. The biggest challenge will be batting those emotional highs and lows,” said Gierlak.

The Griffs begin their season in Tennessee this weekend with a five-game tournament against five different opponents and the biggest takeaway that Gierlak wants the girls to get from the opening weekend is just getting back out to play in the sun. “Being able to hit the dirt and see the sun for the first time, it’s gonna be fun, so my expectation is watching the girls get after it and we’ll take it step by step,” said Gierlak.

Photo courtesy of Ken Morey