Siena Baseball suffered a pair of one-run defeats Sunday as defending MAAC Champion Canisius secured the league-opening series sweep in Buffalo. Canisius claimed the seven-inning game 4-3 and the nightcap 5-4, as all three games of the series were decided by two runs or less and by a total of just four runs.
Game One: Canisius 4, Siena 3 (7)
Canisius (8-15, 3-0) plated four unearned runs in the second inning to clinch the series.
Zach Durfee and
Alex Milone both homered to account for all three Siena (4-15, 0-3) runs.
Durfee staked the Saints to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning, but the Golden Griffins loaded the bases with nobody out in the home half of the frame. After
Brendan White induced a 1-2-3 double play, a two-out throwing error scored both the tying and go-ahead runs. Canisius tacked on two more runs on a triple by Jake Burlingame.
Milone hit a two-run opposite field blast to rally Siena within a run in the fourth, but the Saints were unable to get any closer.
White went the distance for Siena, scattering six hits and four unearned runs while walking two and striking out two. Nolan Hunt struck out six over 6.1 innings to earn the win for the Griffs.
Game Two: Canisius 5, Siena 4
Canisius scored five unanswered runs to rally past Siena in the nightcap and complete the series sweep.
Matt Hamel and
Ryan McGee each delivered two-out, two-run doubles in the fourth and fifth innings respectively to give Siena a 4-0 lead. McGee accounted for three of the Saints' eight hits.
But the Golden Griffins got three of the runs back in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI triple by Burlingame and a two-run home run from Jacob Victor. In the sixth, Victor hit the go-ahead two-run single which gave Canisius a 5-4 lead and proved to be the difference.
The Golden Griffins bullpen did the rest, scattering three hits over four shutout innings.
Ryan Bellomo was strong in relief for Siena, pitching three shutout frames allowing just one hit while walking one and striking out four.
Following what turned out to be a 19-game season-opening road trip, the Saints are scheduled to make their 2019 Capital Region debut Wednesday when they host Army West Point at 3 p.m. at Connors Park.
