NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - The Niagara baseball team fell in the rubber match of a three-game series against Marist on Sunday, 12-1. The loss puts the Purple Eagles in third place halfway through the conference season with an 8-4 record.

The loss marked just the second time in 13 chances that a Niagara baseball team has dropped a Sunday MAAC game, dating back to the beginning of the 2009 season.

Marist jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the fifth inning and never trailed. The Purple Eagles threatened in the first inning, with a pair of runners in scoring position and just one out, but could not plate a run. The Red Foxes responded with three runs on four hits in the second and were off and running.

Senior Bill Rafferty didn't have his best stuff, taking his first loss in conference play this season. He allowed five runs on six hits in just three innings of work.

Offensively, Jason Cramer had a pair of hits and scored Niagara's lone run, an unearned score in the sixth inning. He scored when Anthony Ruggiero lined a single to right that went off the right fielder's glove and allowed Cramer to cross the plate. Five other Purple Eagles collected a hit in the loss.

Niagara returns to action on Wednesday with a non-conference rivalry game at Buffalo before returning home to host MAAC foe Fairfield next weekend.