NIAGARA UNIV, N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles narrowly missed out on a split of Saturday's doubleheader with 8-1 and 5-4 losses to the Canisius Golden Griffins at Bobo Field.
 
Game One
The Purple Eagles (16-29; 8-13 MAAC) struck first in the opener, but couldn't keep it rolling as the Golden Griffins (33-14; 16-4 MAAC) came away with an 8-1 win.
 
Joel Klock took the mound for his first pitching start since March 15, 2013 and held Canisius without a hit through the top-half of the first. The Purple Eagles led of their half of the inning with consecutive singles from Anthony Firenzi and Taylor Hackett before Greg Rodgers added a single of his own that scored Firanzi and broke the scoreless tie.
 
Niagara threatened in the bottom of the third when singles from Rodgers and Jordan Schwartz put two men on with two outs, but they would be left stranded. It also moved runners into scoring position in the sixth and ninth innings, but were unable to bring either runner around. Canisius put up runs in the second, third, fifth, and eighth innings on the way to the 8-1 win.
 
Rodgers and Michael Fuhrman both went 2-for-4 at the plate with Rodgers adding the solo RBI. Klock took the loss after pitching five innings.
 
Game Two
Despite a late rally and Schwartz keeping Canisius off balance, the Purple Eagles fell in 5-4 in game two.
 
The second game was back-and-forth throughout. Niagara responded immediately after Canisius broke the scoreless tie with a two-RBI double from Geoff Seto at the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead. From there the Griffs were slowly able to build a lead one run at a time with one run in both the third and fifth innings and a pair of runs in the fourth.
 
Niagara had the deficit trimmed to one run after the fifth. Firenzi and Mark Meisner singled to get on the basebpaths. Rodgers collected his first RBI of the game and second of the day with an infield single before Klock brought around a run with a single of his own that cut the lead to 5-4.
 
The game was almost tied in the sixth when Kevin Paulsen singled and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Firenzi appeared to tie the game with a pop-up to shallow right, but the ball was ruled to have landed in foul territory and, after Paulsen was ordered back to second base, the runner was left stranded and the Griffs were able to hang on for the 5-4 win.
 
Firenzi went 2-for-4 in the contest and Seto's two RBIs were a game-high. Schwartz took the loss after giving up four earned runs on nine hits with nine strikeouts over six innings. Jacob Lysiak threw a scoreless seventh out of the bullpen.
 
These two teams meet again tomorrow as Niagara wraps up its regular season MAAC schedule. First pitch is scheduled for noon and the game will feature a pregame ceremony to honor the 2014 senior class.