Published: April 20, 2009 12:05 am      

COLLEGE BASEBALL: ‘Hit juice’ helps Niagara past Iona

NIAGARA FALLS — Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid. With wins in five of its last six Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference games, the Niagara University baseball team must be buying whatever interim coach Rob McCoy is offering, right?

In the case of the Purple Eagles, though, that’s a concoction not nearly as tasty as it sounds.

After an April 10 loss to Siena in which the Purple Eagles managed just two hits in 14 innings, the team decided on a pre-game ritual that includes shots of “hit juice” — a semi-secret mixture of an energy drink and some fruit candies put together by some of the team’s upperclassmen.

The juice kept working on Sunday as Matt Wietlispach’s single in the bottom of the ninth inning brought home Graham Skelhorne-Gross, giving Niagara an 8-7 victory over Iona at Sal Maglie Stadium and sole possession of second place in the MAAC.

Freshman closer Adam Wagner continued his mastery of the breaking ball, using an endless stream of sliders to get the Purple Eagles (10-5, 14-23) out of a jam in the top of the ninth.

With two on and no outs in a tie game, McCoy called on Wagner and he came through with a pair of strikeouts, a walk, then another strikeout, using nothing but breaking balls.

“Truth be told, I have a lot more faith in my slider than I do in my fastball. It’s kind of sad, but I think I can throw it for a strike more than I can my fastball,” he said. “What I tell myself is until they prove they can hit it, I’m not going to throw anything else.”

That set up an interesting ninth as Skelhorne-Gross walked after falling into an 0-2 hole, Keith Picconi bunted for a single, then Gaels’ pitcher Matthew Casino threw to third when Matt Lucchesi bunted, but Skelhorne-Gross beat the throw.

Wietlispach’s knock to right field brought in the winning run.

“We’ve got a lot of winners on our team. Everyone knows when we’re down two it doesn’t mean anything,” said Wietlispach, a junior from Chicago. “Eventually, we’re going to come back and get ’em.”

Lockport’s Alex Otto led Niagara with three hits and three RBIs, while Michael Kellar, who came into the game with a perfect 4-0 MAAC record, got off the hook for an outing in which he surrendered seven hits and six runs — four of them earned — in five innings. Niagara finished with four errors.

“I didn’t like the fact that we were not that sharp on defense, I’m definitely not OK with that,” McCoy said. “But the fact that we kept grinding, understood that you’ve got to play the entire ball game, in the end, we got an ugly win.”

And that left a good flavor in the mouths of the Purple Eagles, even if it meant swallowing an unsavory pre-game blend.

“The hit juice doesn’t taste that good, but I almost see it as a unifying, bonding experience,” Wagner said. “Before the game, we call all the pitchers in and we all do the shot together. It must be working.”

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.