POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- The Canisius College softball team scored four times in the first inning and ended the game with 12 hits while senior hurler Mallory Aldred threw a complete-game three-hitter as the Golden Griffins downed No. 2 seed Manhattan 8-2 in the first game of the 2009 MAAC Softball Championship at Gartland Park in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The win allows the Griffs to advance to Friday's winner's bracket game, where the team will meet either Fairfield or Niagara at 11 a.m.
Canisius senior Rachelle Barrientos went 3-for-5 with a home run, two runs scored and two RBIs, while freshmen Lizzy Gatto and Katie Lancellotti added three hits apiece in the win. The Griffs scored four times in the top of the first inning and never looked back. The biggest blow of that frame came off the bat of Cameron Norton, who ripped her third homer of the season over the fence in right center to drive in Barrientos and Gatto.
The Griffs scored single runs in the top of the second and fourth innings to take a 6-0 lead. In the second, Barrientos drove in a run with an infield single and Gatto did the same thing in the fourth. Manhattan cut into Canisius' cushion with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, but the Griffs answered with single runs in the sixth and seventh, highlighted by Barrientos' homer in the sixth.
The run support was more than enough for Aldred, who improved to 17-6 on the year after she allowed three hits and struck out seven on 106 total pitches.
Norton finished the day by going 1-for-2 with a homer, a run scored and three RBIs while Lauren Hope, Barrientos, and Lancellotti all scored two runs in the winning effort.