NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - The Niagara baseball team (11-9 MAAC) used great pitching and timely hitting to sweep Saint Peter's (6-17 MAAC) in a conference doubleheader on Saturday. The Purple Eagles won game one, 7-2, before taking game two, 5-2.

"Today was a great day for our club. We can taste a playoff spot and the guys played like it," Niagara head coach Rob McCoy. "We are in a single elimination playoff tournament in order to make the MAAC's. It's now or never."

Senior hurlers Daniel Morari and Marcus Spaulding pitched brilliantly, each earning the victory with a little help from classmate Dennis Chachko. The Purple Eagle offense also performed up to par, scoring runs in half of their chances while holding the Peacocks to just two runs in each game.

Niagara 7, Saint Peter's 2
Morari continued his dominance at Sal Maglie Stadium in his career. The lefthander tossed eight innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on five hits.

In his career at Niagara, Morari owns a 5-2 record with a miniscule 1.04 earned-run average at Sal Maglie Stadium. He has earned two wins over Saint Peter's at home, including a complete game shutout in 2008.

Morari was backed with an offense that scored at least once in five of the first six innings. The Niagara outfielders reached base six times and scored four runs while knocking in one, despite collecting just one hit. Junior Cam Stykemain scored a career-high three runs after drawing three walks. Senior Matt Wietlispach drew a pair of base on balls and scored once, while sophomore Adam Wagner collected the trio's lone hit, an RBI-single in the fourth.

Seniors Timothy Cozier and Jason Cramer combined for three RBI in the three-run fifth inning. Cozier lined a two-run single that turned a 4-1 game into a 6-1 game, putting it out of reach for Saint Peter's with Morari on the mound. Chachko pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the win.

Senior Trevor Rutkowski went 3-for-4 and knocked in the team's first run. Freshmen Ryan McCauley and Evan Wexler each collected two hits in the win.

Niagara 5, Saint Peter's 2
Spaulding earned his first win of his injury-shortened season. The righthander tossed five innings of four-hit baseball, allowing just one run while striking out three and walking three.

A pair of leadoff walks in the second inning got Spaulding into a jam, but after a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, the righthander gathered a dribbler  on the right side and tagged out the No. 9 batter to end the threat with just one run scoring.

The Purple Eagles responded with a 4-run bottom half of the inning when the team's first four batters reached base safely. McCauley singled and scored on Brian Deering's single. He came around to score, along with Cramer on Cozier's two-run double. Cozier scampered home on Wagner's sacrifice fly after Wes Walker's perfectly executed sacrifice bunt advanced him to third.

Wietlispach doubled home Cozier in the fourth to stretch the lead to 5-1. Freshman Tyler Scott allowed an unearned run in the sixth inning, and Chachko came in for a perfect seventh inning to earn his first save of the season.

The two teams return to the diamond on Sunday with a noon first pitch.