PITTSBURGH – The Purple Eagles finished the first of two doubleheaders in the Panther Classic with losses to both the Toledo Rockets and Pittsburgh Panthers on Friday.
 
Game One
The Purple Eagles (3-15) succeeded in getting runners on base but struggled to bring them home in game one of the doubleheader, which they lost to the Rockets (6-9) 11-2 Friday morning.
 
Niagara put runners on first and second with two outs in the first, fifth and sixth innings, but left them stranded each timed.  It finally got on the board in the seventh when a Ryan McCauley double, a Christian Vangeison walk, and a Greg Rodgers single through the left side loaded the bases for Jordan Schwartz   The sophomore from Hornell, N.Y. sent a single back up the middle to score two runs, but it was too late as Toledo had put up runs in each of the first six innings and led 11-2, a lead it kept throughout the final two innings.
 
Michael Fuhrman finished with a game high three hits (he finished 3-for-4 with a walk).  Joel Klock (0-2) started for NU and took the loss after pitching four complete innings.  Corbin Stykemain pitched four innings in relief, including to shutout innings to end the game.
 
Game Two
The Panthers (10-5) jumped out to an early lead with an eight-run second inning before the Purple Eagles could get on the board on their half of the third.  A Thomas Rodrigues RBI-single brought Jeff Calhoon across the plate to cut the deficit to 8-1.  NU put two more runs on the board in the next inning when Fuhrman’s infield single brought in two more runs to cut the score to 10-3 but from there Pittsburgh added seven more runs while keeping Niagara scoreless to pull away with a 17-3 win. 
 
Furhman’s two-RBI single gave him the team-high for the game.  Anthony Caringi (0-2) started for the Purple Eagles and took the loss. 
 
The team is back on the field tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. when it starts the final doubleheader, facing Toledo before wrapping up the tournament with the final match against Pittsburgh at 1:15 p.m.