Box Score

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles opened their home schedule with a 9-6 victory over conference foe Marist on Saturday at Sal Maglie Stadium.

“I’m happy with our overall performance,” head coach Rob McCoy said.  “That is one of the best pitchers in the conference and I felt like we handed him and we played stellar defense all game.”

All nine batters for the Purple Eagles (9-13, 2-2 MAAC) had a base hit against one of the top pitchers in the conference as Niagara took game one of the series. Niagara trailed Marist (7-13, 2-2 MAAC) 2-0 after one inning, but responded by pushing four runs across home plate in the second inning. Niagara tied the game at 2-2 before Joel Klock singled to centerfield to score Evan Wexler and Thomas Rodrigues.

The Red Foxes added one in the top of the third, but NU scored two more runs in the third. Jon Wilson singled home Eric Hink from third base for his first of three RBIs in the game, and Wynton Bernard later scored on an throwing error by the Marist’s third baseman.

Starting pitcher Jim Fort was in controlled for the next four innings. He allowed only two hits and zero runs while NU tact on three more runs to take a 9-3 lead heading into the eighth inning. Fort allowed one run in the eighth inning, which was his last inning, and finished the game with five strikeouts and four runs with zero walks.

In the final frame, Marist scored two runs on Tyler Spear and had the bases loaded with two outs when Geoff Soja entered the game to strikeout Mark Stuckey for the final out of the game and to pick up his first save of the season.

“We need to take more advantage of staying ahead of hitters,” McCoy stated. “We will need to come out tomorrow and be more dominant on the mound if we expect to take the series.”

Niagara and Marist will play their series ending doubleheader on Sunday at Noon at Sal Maglie Stadium.