The St. John Fisher College baseball program won its Empire 8 Conference season opener on Friday, as the Cardinals picked up a 5-2 win over host Elmira College.

With the win, Fisher improves to 9-6 overall, while the Soaring Eagles fall to 5-7.  The two schools will play a doubleheader on Saturday at Elmira's Dunn Field, with the first game scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Stephen Lewis earned his second win of the season for Fisher.  Seven was the southpaw's lucky number on Friday, as Lewis pitched seven innings, while allowing seven hits and striking out seven.  With runners on second and third and no outs in the sixth, Lewis escaped unharmed and retired the side in order in his final inning.

Sophomore Loukas Brigham pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his first save.

Elmira took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, thanks to four base hits, but the inning ended with centerfielder Joe Simmons throwing out a runner at the plate.

Fisher took the lead for good in the third.  Evan Ryan blooped a double down the line in right and Cody Wiktorski reached on a hit-by-pitch.  After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners, Mike Roman, who finished the day with hits for the fourth time in his career, got Fisher on the board with an RBI-single.  Fisher then took the lead on a double-steal, with Roman stealing second and Wiktorski going home on the play.

It would stay 2-1 through seventh inning.  On the first pitch in the top of the eighth, Scott Eisenmenger drilled a solo shot to left-center to put Fisher up 3-1.

Elmira plated just one run in the eighth after loading the bases with no outs, but Fisher tacked on two runs in the ninth. 

Ryan singled and scored two batters later on an RBI-single to center from Jack Trotman.  Wiktorski scored his second run of the day on a double of the bag at third by Roman.

Ryan finished the game with three hits and two runs scored, while Malcolm Kelsey also enjoyed a multi-hit game.