BUFFALO – St. Bonaventure sent 14 men to the plate in a 10-run eighth inning to erase a five-run deficit and roar past Canisius, 15-9, in midweek action Tuesday afternoon under sunny skies at the Demske Sports Complex.
The Bonnies (10-17) entered the eighth down, 9-5. A Canisius error allowed two runs to score as Bona got back within a pair. Jack Putney then plated a run with a single up the middle and Morgan Little put the Bonnies ahead, 10-9, with a ground-rule double hopping over the outfield fence.
From there, the hit parade continued as the Bonnies tacked on.
David Marshall Jr. doubled in a run, then Paul Vossen was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force home another. Adam Rankie then had the back-breaker, delivering a bases-clearing double that split the gap in right-center to complete a perfect 10 runs in the inning for the visitors.
Rankie had four hits and four RBIs as he continued his hot streak at the plate. Putney drove in three and Kyle Caccamise also had two hits. Freshman Antonio Cordeiro also drew what is believed to be a Bonnies Division I era record five walks at the plate.
Sophomore Andrew Ayers locked it down out of the Bona bullpen, tossing 3.2 innings of scoreless relief to earn his first career win. The second-year lefty allowed just two hits, walked one and struck out a career-best six batters.
Putney put the Bonnies on the board early with a two-run homer, his sixth of the year, in the first inning.
Canisius (8-18) immediately answered back, however, as Michael Kelly cracked a grand slam to put the Griffs on top.
Down 5-2 in the fourth, the Bonnies got a run back on a sacrifice fly by Rankie, and a Griffs error in the sixth got the Bonnies back within a run.
Canisius broke it open with four runs in the home half of the sixth, capped by a homer from Kenny Dodson, but the Bonnies wouldn't give up.
Jackson DeJohn started the Bona rally with a solo homer in the seventh to get within 9-5, setting the table for the huge eighth inning.
With the win, the Bonnies snapped what was an eight-game winning streak in the Little Three rivalry series for Canisius dating back to 2017. SBU narrowed the all-time series gap to a 56-54-3 lead for Canisius with the two teams scheduled to rematch later this month at Handler Park.
Freshman Alex Barger made his first career start, striking out two (2.0 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 2 K) and junior Chance Moore threw 3.1 innings of relief (3.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 4 K).
The Bonnies are back in action at home this weekend, hosting VCU for a three-game Atlantic 10 series that is slated to begin Friday at 3 p.m.
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