Fairfield, CT—The Niagara baseball team opened a weekend MAAC series with Fairfield on Friday. The Purple Eagles won 7-6 in comeback fashion to take the first of three games on the weekend.
Game Recap

• The Stags struck first in the bottom of the first inning as they took a 2-0 lead on a homer. They added to their lead in the second inning to make it 3-0.
• In the bottom of the fourth, Fairfield scored their fourth run of the game and took a 4-0 lead.
• The Purple Eagle bats came alive in the top of the fifth inning. Brady Desjardins singled with one out which was followed by a Nick Groves double to left center that bounced over the fence. With runners on second and third, Kelly Corl doubled to left center and cleared the bases to make it a 4-2 game. After a flyout that moved Corl to third, Vincent Mauro legged out an infield single that brought Corl home to make it a one run game.
• Fairfield responded in the bottom of the fifth inning as they singled home a run to make it a two run game again.
• With one out in the top of the sixth inning, Josh Marchese blasted a no doubt home run to right center on the first pitch he saw. It was Marchese's fourth homer of the year and 16^th of his career.
• The Stags once again responded in the bottom of the sixth and made it 6-4.
• Steven Hospital held off the Stags for the rest of the sixth and had shutout innings in the seventh and eighth.
• In the ninth, trailing by two runs, Groves started the comeback with a one out double down the left field line. Groves advanced to third on a wild pitch with Corl at the plate. Corl singled to the left center field gap to make it a 6-5 game. Cole Tucker stepped to the plate with one our and runner on first. On a 1-1 pitch, the grad student blasted his second homer of the season to give the Purple Eagles a 7-6 lead.
• Zach Cameron came out of the bullpen and notched the save as he recorded a pair of strikeouts.

Niagara Notes

• Nick Veselinovic started on the mound, he went 4+ innings and allowed five runs on 10 hits, he struckout five.
• Hospital came out of the pen and allowed just two hits and one run in four innings of work. He struckout four batters and notched four flyouts and four groundouts. He earned his fourth win of the season.
• Cameron worked around one hit while striking out two to notch his seventh win of the season. He is currently ranked second in program history in single season saves.
• Niagara notched just their second win when trailing after eight innings. The other game was a 12-4 ten inning win on Mar. 18 against George Washington.
• The Purple Eagles are outscoring opponents 42-12 in the ninth inning this season.
• This season Niagara has played 24 road games, they are 14-10 on the road. It is the most in a season since the 2006 season in which they had 15 wins away from home.
• Niagara notched 14 hits with eight of the nine starters notching a hit. Five of the eight has multi hit games. Corl led the way as he went 3-4.

Up Next

• Due to expected weather on the east coast, first pitch for game two has been moved up to noon on Saturday at Fairfield.