Junior Jeff Vincent went 6 for 8 with three runs, five RBI, a double, triple and home run vs. Canisius Thursday.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Niagara University baseball team (22-26, 15-9) kept its Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference postseason playoff hopes alive Thursday when it won the first two games of a three-game series with cross-town rival Canisius College (9-37, 5-20) at the Demske Sports Complex. The Purple Eagles won the first outing, 9-1, and the second, 13-6.

With the victories, Niagara is now in third place in the MAAC standings after second place Siena College took two games from Le Moyne (8-6, 10-3) Thursday in Syracuse. A Purple Eagle win in Friday’s noon Canisius game would give the squad its third consecutive postseason berth.

On the day, junior Jeff Vincent (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker) was 6 for 8 with three runs, five RBI, a double, triple and home run. Classmate Mike Medici (Latham, N.Y./Shaker) was 7 for 11 with four runs, three RBI, a pair of doubles and a triple. Junior Paul Solini (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool), sophomore Brian Clifford (Cheektowaga, N.Y./Bishop Timon) and reigning MAAC Rookie of the Week Andrew MacDonald (Charlottetown, P.E.I./Charlottetown) each had four hits and a double.

On the mound, starters James Avery (Moose Jaw, Sask./Central) and Dan Griffin (Schenectady, N.Y./Guilderland) each picked up their fifth wins of the season. Avery threw a four-hitter with seven strikeouts in the series opener, and Griffin went 5.1 innings, striking out nine in the second.

In game one, Vincent went 3 for 4 with a double, a homer and four RBI. Medici had three hits, while junior Andrew MacNevin (St. Catherines, P.E.I./Bluefield), Solini and each had two.

Vincent gave the Purple Eagles a 2-0 lead in the second with a two-run home run and then drove in two more in the third with a double for a 4-0 lead.

Leading 8-0 in the seventh, Canisius scored its lone run when Dennis Wellman walked and scored later in the inning on an error.

Niagara broke a 1-1 tie in the second inning of the second game when Clifford plated senior Reed Eastley (Brandon, Man./Neelin) with a double and scored on junior Daniel Parsons’ (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) single.

Leading 5-2, Niagara scored for four runs in the fourth with the help of two Canisius errors and a Medici two-run double to left field.

Trailing 10-3 with the bases loaded in the sixth, Canisius got two runs on a double and another run on an error to trim the margin to 10-6. Niagara scored three runs in the seventh when Clifford singled Vincent home, and MacDonald hit a two-run single to the left side.