Griffs Drop Bulls, 12-4, in Big 4 Tournament

Agustin stretches hitting streak to 13 games

Dan Quinn

BUFFALO, NY – Nine runs in the first three innings, three in each frame, led second-seeded Canisius College to a 12-4 win against third-seeded University at Buffalo baseball team in the first round of the Big 4 Tournament at Amherst Audubon Field on Tuesday afternoon.

Buffalo drops into the consolation game with Niagara, who lost to St. Bonaventure, 7-5, in the second game, at 3:00 pm on Wednesday and Canisius and St. Bonaventure will meet in the championship at 6:00 pm.

Brad Agustin

The Bulls (10-27 overall) got out to a fast start, scoring three in the top half of the first (Buffalo served as away team as the third seed), as freshman Brad Agustin (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville East) extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a one-out single. Senior Carl Aquila (Alden, NY/St. Mary's/Erie CC) followed with a single to right field and after an out, junior Dan Quinn (Hamburg, NY/Frontier) singled past a leaping shortstop to score a run. An error by the shortstop plated another run before a wild pitch brought Aquila home.

The Golden Griffins (13-27 overall) answered right back, getting three runs on four hits in the bottom of the inning, then scoring three more runs on two hits and an error in the second inning.

Buffalo cut the lead to 6-4 in the third as senior James Kingsley (Medina, NY/Medina) walked and took second and third on wild pitches before Quinn lifted a sac fly to center field.

Canisius answered with three in the bottom of the third, as Matt Mazurek hit a two-out three-run double to left to make it 9-4. The Griffs added three more in the eighth, with Mazurek once again offering a two-out double, this time driving in two.

Mazurek led the Griffs, going 4-for-6 with five RBIs and two doubles and Bob Locke, Connor Burke and Branson Joseph all also had two hits.

Seven UB hitters had hits, with Quinn leading the way with two RBIs.

Mike Bax earned the win for the Griffs, allowing six hits and two earned runs in seven innings. He walked one and struck out eight.

Sophomore Shane Wolf (Freeville, NY/Lansing) took the loss, going 1 2/3 innings and allowing six hits, two walks and four earned runs. He struck out three.

04/25/2006