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BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Canisius baseball team (10-14) scored 16 of its runs in the first three innings en route to defeating St. Bonaventure (6-11) on Tuesday afternoon at Demske Sports Complex, 20-3.
The Bonnies jumped on the board right away in the top of the 1st as sophomore middle infield classmates Jason Radwan and Billy Urban teamed up to give the club a 1-0 lead. Radwan reached on a 1-out ground-rule double, and two batters later Urban traded places with him by sending a delivery into right center for his 11th RBI of the year.
However, that's the only lead St. Bonaventure would have the rest of the day as the Golden Griffins plated seven runs in the bottom of the 1st off Bona starter Nick Brennen. The left hander only surrendered three hits in the frame, but he walked just as many and the defense committed two errors – one by Brennen himself – as he lasted just 2/3 of an inning in allowing four earned runs.
Bonaventure got one run back in the top of the 2nd when redshirt junior Alex Calderon led off the inning by pulling a ball over the right-field fence for his first career home run.
But Canisius once again answered, this time off reliever Robert Nalepa, with a two-run 2nd and seven-run 3rd to put the game out of reach.
Nalepa threw 2.1 innings in which he surrendered eight earned runs on nine hits. He was relieved by Asa Johnson to start the 4th inning, and the freshman performed admirably in halting the Canisius offensive attack. He struck out three while allowing just two hits in two innings of shutout work before being replaced by redshirt junior Michael Pease.
Brennen hit a solo home run to right – one of nine Bona hits on the day – in the 7th inning for the first of his season to conclude the Bona scoring. Senior centerfielder Brad Steinbach and Brennen were the lone Bonaventure players with multi-hit games, as Steinbach went 2-for-4 and Brennen finished 2-for-5. On the afternoon, the Bonnies committed six errors, leading to five unearned runs.
St. Bonaventure will be back in action this weekend when it travels to Richmond to open Atlantic 10 Conference play against the Spiders. Game one of the three-game series is set for 3 p.m. on Friday.
