First-year Evan O'Keeffe and sophomore Jake Levin each hit their first career home runs in a losing effort to SUNY Canton on Thursday, as the Roos took the non-conference matchup 16-12 against St. Lawrence on Tom Fay Field.

O'Keeffe led the Saints with a 2-for-4 performance with the home run, four RBI and a run scored,  while Levin was 1-for-2 with a home run, three RBI and a run scored. Tyler Guido scored a team-high three runs.

O'Keeffe's two-run home run to left in the bottom of the sixth inning ignited an eight-run rally for the Saints and also snapped a no-hitter for the Roos pitcher Jake St. Mary. St. Lawrence scored eight runs on five hits with the help of two errors to cut the deficit to 16-9 in favor of the visitors.

First-year Ransley Mendez led off the inning with a walk before O'Keeffe hit a line-drive shot over the left field fence. Junior Devin Robson followed with a double to left center and Tyler Guido singled to center to put runners on the corners with no one out.

Levin picked up his first RBI of the day with a sac fly to left that plated Robson and, with two outs in the inning, Adam Reichel was hit by a pitch to put two aboard with Michael LeFevre at the plate.

LeFevre's two-RBI double to deep left center scored both Reichel and Guido to make it 16-6 and two consecutive errors by the Roos defense helped plate the seventh on a ball hit to third by Mendez. The eighth and ninth runs for St. Lawrence scored on an two-RBI single to left by O'Keeffe, as all four of the runs he drove in on Thursday came in the sixth inning.

Robert Gates came in to pitch for the Saints in the top of the seventh and allowed just one hit in three innings, keeping SUNY Canton off the board for the remainder of the game and giving the Saints a chance to close the gap.

St. Lawrence added another run in the bottom half of the frame on a sac fly by Reichel that scored Guido and scored two in the bottom of the ninth on Levin's home run over the left field fence that also brought Guido around to score, but the initial 15-run deficit was too much to overcome.

Starter Frank Grady was the pitcher of record for the Saints, throwing one and a third and allowing six runs on seven hits. His counterpart, Jake St. Mary ended up allowing nine runs on five hits with six walks and two strikeouts in the win.

The Saints, now 12-20 overall will travel to face Cortland in a non-conference matchup on Saturday afternoon in the first of three non-conference games in five games before finishing up the Liberty League schedule with RPI at home on May 7 and 8.