Niagara University, N.Y.—The Niagara baseball team completed a weekend sweep of Mount St. Mary's on Sunday with a 9-5 win over The Mount.

How it Happened

The Mount opened the scoring in the first inning as they manufactured a run on a hit and two free passes.

Niagara tied the game at one in the bottom of the second inning as Jake Hutchins stepped to the plate with two outs in the inning. After watching the first pitch, Hutchins blasted his first homer of the season over the left field fence to tie the game at one.

The Purple Eagles bats came alive in the bottom of the third inning as they put up three runs. Nick Monile opened the inning with a five pitch walk and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. After a popout, Eric Rataczak doubled down the right field line to bring home Monile from second to give Niagara a 2-1 lead. Vincent Mauro reached on a fielding error to put runners on first and second with one out. Gavin Schrader then walked to load the bases. After a strikeout, Matt Ward stepped to the plate and with a 3-2 count he lined a single to center field to bring home two runs to extend the Niagara lead to 4-1.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Purple Eagles added a pair of runs. Rataczak opened the inning with a single and after a popout, Schrader drew an eight pitch walk to put runners on first and second. After a fielder's choice put runners on the corners, Rataczak scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-1 Niagara lead. With a runner on second base, Ward singled to right field on a 2-1 pitch that brought home the sixth Niagara run.

In the top of the seventh inning, Mount St. Mary's scored four runs with three of the four being unearned runs.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Schrader singled to center to bring Rees Kozar to the plate. On the first pitch he saw, he blasted a no-doubt two run homer to increase the Niagara lead to 8-5.

Niagara added another insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. Nate Milk legged out an infield single to open the inning and moved to second on a groundout. With an 0-1 count, Brady Desjardins singled to center field and drove in Milk from second to make it a 9-5 Niagara lead.

Mount went down 1,2,3 in the top of the ninth as Niagara notched its seventh home win of the season.

Niagara Notes

·       Niagara improves to 9-0 in MAAC play, it is the best conference start in program history.

·       The Purple Eagles are now 7-0 at Bobo Field this season.

·       Niagara had 10 hits in the game, the Purple Eagles are 17-3 this season when notching 10 or more hits in a game.

·       Gage Wheaton started on the mound for the Purple Eagles as he went 4.0 innings and allowed just one run on one hit. He struckout five batters in the outing.

·       Carter Fink picked up his second win of the as he went 2.0 innings, he did now allow a run on three hits while he struckout four batters.

·       Zach Cameron notched his seventh save of the season as he went 2.2 innings while not allowing a run on one hit while striking out five batters. Cameron has the best ERA in the MAAC this season among eligible pitchers, his ERA is 3.48. He is tied for the MAAC lead in wins while also leading the MAAC in saves with seven.

·       Mauro started at second base for the first time in his collegiate career. He made two putouts which included starting a 4-6-3 double play in the first inning.

·       The Niagara pitching staff struckout 14 batters which is the second most strikeouts in a game this season. Niagara has struckout 10 batters or more batters in 11 games this season.

·       Rataczak had three hits in the win while Ward had two hits. Seven Purple Eagles had hits in the win.

·       Both Schrader and Monile drew two walks in the win.

·       In the three game series against Mount St. Mary's, Niagara hit .362 as a team while Rataczak led the way with a .643 average.

·       Niagara outscored Mount 40-26 in the three games.

·       Seven Purple Eagles hit over .300 in the three games for the Purple Eagles.

·       As a team, Niagara is hitting .316 which leads the MAAC.

·       Rataczak is leading the MAAC in hitting with a .433 batting average. Monile is fourth in the MAAC with a .406 batting average.

Up Next

The Purple Eagles play in a midweek non-conference game on Tuesday as they take on Le Moyne at 3 PM. The Purple Eagles get back into MAAC play against Siena on April 19.

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