By Andrew Nowel, sports reporter
With the weather starting to turn, the baseball team returned to Buffalo for the first time this season on Tuesday. After defeating the St. Peter's Peacocks on Sunday, the Griffs were looking to extend their win streak to two games against the Le Moyne Dolphins. Behind a 17-run offensive explosion, the team began to turn the corner as March nears its end.
The Griffs began MAAC play two weeks ago in North Andover, Massachusetts where they fell in two of three games against the Merrimack Warriors. A non-conference battle with the Niagara Purple Eagles saw the Griffs fall in 11–6 fashion. The struggle early on has stemmed from the inability to execute pitches, says Canisius Head Coach Matt Mazurek.
“Execution has been a part of the struggles,” explained Coach Mazurek on Wednesday. “Everytime a guy leaves a pitch up, there’s a very small margin for error. We also get ourselves into predictable patterns when we get down in the count which forces us into predictable pitches.”
A short weekend trip to New Jersey appeared to confirm this, as the Griffs’ pitching staff allowed 23 runs in the first two games of the series. However, Coach Mazurek and the team tried a different strategy on Sunday in the series finale. Senior pitcher Tyler Greenleaf started the game and pitched the first two innings before giving way to grad student Levi Abbott. Abbott struggled in his first inning, but followed up the three-run third with three scoreless innings.
“After the weekend prior where the bullpen gave up nine runs in three innings, we realized that we need to get to the back end of the game cleaner, so we put Greenleaf up front to try to throw guys off,” said Coach Mazurek. “Handing the ball to Levi was the hope that he could stretch us to the back of the bullpen, which he did. We’ve been trying to stretch him out more, and I think that it’s been a good move for him.”
The success from both Greenleaf and Abbott was supported by five runs that the Griffs scored in the second inning. Abbott earned his 100th career strikeout during the outing and the Griffs added to their lead late for a 10–5 victory, with Abbott notching his first win of the season.
The Griffs returned home for their first game on the Demske looking to continue the success of the offense. However, the offense’s first four innings of the matchup against the Dolphins were similar to the weather: cold. The offense was able to score six runs, but the pitching struggles returned as freshman pitchers Tyler DeBrocky and Noah Albano allowed nine combined runs before freshman Weston Elkovitch got the final out of the fourth inning.
Down 9–6 in the middle innings of the game, someone was needed to step up. Junior outfielder Owen Silliman was given the duty of leadoff hitter and he excelled, getting on base
Photo Courtesy of Stockton