CINCINNATI - Just call them the Comeback Kids. The Niagara baseball team used late-inning heroics for the second-straight day to defeat a Big East baseball team, scoring nine runs in the final inning for a 12-7 victory over Cincinnati on Saturday.

Niagara scored a run in the top of the ninth on Friday to take the first game of the four-game series, and improved to 2-1 on the weekend with the come-from-behind win on Saturday.

"We showed tremendous fight to come back again," Niagara head coach Chris Chernisky said. "I couldn't be more proud of our guys. We had big hit after big hit."

Down 7-3 in the top of the seventh, senior Tim Alberts (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) started the scoring outburst with a two-run home run to left center to inch Niagara closer. Steve Baldinelli (Niagara Falls, Ont.) singled through the right side and, with two outs, Clint Elkins (Kansas City, Mo.) reached on an error by and advanced to second on a bad throw by the third baseman.

With runners at second and third, Chernisky went to his bench and called upon Graham Skelhorne-Gross (Mississauga, Ont.). The utility catcher doubled to left field, scoring both runs and knotting the score at 7-7.

Bobby Lenhard (Rochester, N.Y.) reached on a fielding error as Skelhorne-Gross scored, and with the bases loaded in a one-run game, Alberts brought everyone home with a three-run double to left field to make the score 11-7. Harrison Harber (Kanata, Ont.) tripled home Alberts to close the scoring at 12-7.

Junior Harrison Helms (Matthews, N.C.) pitched two-thirds of an inning and earned the win in relief. Mark Sikorsi (Toronto, Ont.), who earned the win in relief on Friday, retired the final two batters to preserve the win.

Alberts finished the game 3-for-5 with five RBIs while Harber also collected three hits. Baldinelli and Andrew Macdonald (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) each had two hits in the win.

The Purple Eagles fell 12-5 in the first game of the day. Niagara scored three runs oin the fourth and one in the fifth to take a 5-3 lead, but Cincinnati responded with nine runs in three innings to take the lead. Mark Wilson (Peterborough, Ont.) allowed six runs, three unearned, to take the loss. Macdonald went 3-for-5 while Alberts added two hits.