NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - The Niagara baseball team (8-3 MAAC) split a critical doubleheader with Marist (8-3 MAAC) on Saturday at Sal Maglie Stadium. The Purple Eagles won game one behind a dominant pitching performance by senior Daniel Morari, 7-2, before dropping game two, 11-5.

Niagara 7, Marist 2
Morari put together his best outing of the season, earning the victory over the Red Foxes in the home conference opener. The senior lefthander almost went the distance, tossing 8.2 innings without allowing an earned run. He held the Red Fox offense to just four hits and faced the minimum batters in four innings. Morari retired the first eight batters he faced, struck out three and walked just two. He also induced a pair of inning ending double plays.

In the ninth inning, the first batter reached on a throwing error by the shortstop before Morari set the next two batters down with a pop-up and a fly out. Sitting just one out away from his sixth career complete game and second career shutout, Morari issued back-to-back walks to load the bases, his only two walks of the afternoon.

Senior Dennis Chachko came in to attempt to perserve the shutout, but Zach Shank connected on a bloop double down the right field line, plating Marist's only two runs.

Morari recieved plenty of offensive support, especially from senior Matt Wietlispach. The left fielder went 4-for-4 and scored three times.

Every Purple Eagle recorded at least one hit, and sophomore Adam Wagner and freshman Ryan McCauley added two base knocks. McCauley's first hit was a two-out, first-inning RBI double, scoring Wietlispach.

Wagner and Wietlispach both singled and scored in the third, on RBIs by Cam Stykemain and Trevor Rutkowski. Rutkowski extended the NU lead to 4-0 on an RBI triple to the right center gap. He later scored on a sinlge by Jason Cramer to advance the lead to 5-0. Four-straight two-out singles in the sixth gave Niagara a 7-0 lead.

Marist 11, Niagara 5
The Purple Eagle pitching staff and defense let the Red Foxes take control of the second contest. Niagara walked eight batters and hit three more in the seven-inning contest. NU actually out-hit the Red Foxes 9-8, despite losing by six runs. The Purple Eagles also committed three costly errors early in the game as Marist took a 7-0 lead.

The NU bats kept the team in the contest, getting to three-time MAAC Pitcher of the Week B.J. Martin after the first three innings. The Purple Eagles scratched across three runs against Martin and two more against the bullpen, but Marsit played add-on late in the game to pull away with the easy win.

Freshman Tyler Scott earned his first career loss, allowing four runs on four hits, two walks and two hit batsmen.

Offensively, McCauley and Rutkowski both collected two hits, as Rutkowski scored twice and McCauley knocked in two.

Niagara and Marist play the rubber match of the critical three-game set on Sunday at noon.