Marist Red Foxes Secure Sweep of Canisius

POUGHKEEPSIE – For the second consecutive day and third straight game the Marist baseball team used an offensive explosion to pick up a 13-3 win over the Canisius Golden Griffins on Sunday at McCann Field. With the Sunday victory, the Red Foxes completed the three game Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference series sweep over the Golden Griffins to improve to 15-11 (5-4 MAAC). The series sweep was the first by the team over Canisius since 2006.

Marist continued their offensive momentum from Saturday’s doubleheader sweep on Sunday, scoring double digit runs (13) and hits (13) for the third consecutive game. The Red Foxes’ 13 runs in Game 3 was the second most scored in a single game by the team in 2017 and the team got the lead off man on and had at least one hit in seven of the eight innings they batted.

Redshirt sophomore Chris Tracz led the Red Foxes offensively with two hits, a home run, one run scored and four RBI, while senior Tyler Kirkpatrick finished the day with two hits, a home run, two runs scored and three RBI. Junior Andrew Rouse chipped in two hits, one run scored and two RBI and freshman Patrick Lightner continued his monstrous weekend with two hits, including a double (his third in the last two games) and one run scored. Sophomore Anthony Lazar finished with a hit, three walks, three runs scored and one RBI, redshirt junior Greg Kocinski picked up a hit, two runs scored and one RBI, redshirt freshman Tyler Kapuscinski picked up one hit, two walks and two runs scored, sophomore Frankie Gregoire finished with one hit, one run scored and one RBI and freshman Fletcher Szabo picked up his first career hit.

On the mound, redshirt junior Scott Boches continued his strong performances, picking up his third win of the year, pitching seven innings while giving up just one run on four hits with four walks and nine strikeouts (tying a season high). Sophomore Brandon Bonomo gave up two runs on two hits with a walk and junior Spencer Bunting threw two innings and gave up no runs on a hit with a walk and two strikeouts.

Marist opened the scoring in the bottom of the first on back-to-back walks by Lazar and Kapuscinski and an RBI single by Gregoire. Kocinski’s RBI single two batters later scored Kapuscinski and after on a walk by Kirkpatrick, Gregoire scored on a throwing error to make it 3-0. Two batters later, Tracz doubled to left center, scoring Kocinski and Kirkpatrick and it was 5-0 Marist.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Red Foxes doubled their lead when Lightner singled down the left field line and advanced to second on a fielding error by the left fielder. Lazar followed with an RBI single, advanced to second on a Kapuscinski single and third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Rouse RBI single to left. Following a Kocinski walk, Kirkpatrick ripped a two RBI single to center and two batters later, Kocinski scored on a Tracz sac fly to center field.

Marist added a run in the bottom of the fifth on back-to-back walks by Lazar and Kapuscinski and after a fly out, Rouse scored Lazar on a sac fly to right to make it 11-0 Red Foxes.

In the bottom of the sixth, Marist added two more runs on solo home runs by Kirkpatrick to left and Tracz to right to extend the lead to 13-0.

Canisius got on the board in the seventh on a two out single, followed by an RBI double.

The Golden Griffins added two more runs in the eighth on a lead off single, a walk, a single an RBI fielder’s choice and a sac fly to left field.

Bunting then pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the 13-3 Red Fox win.