Baseball | 5/9/2016 2:20:00 PM

St. John Fisher College will host the 2016 Empire 8 Conference Baseball Championship Thursday through Saturday at Fisher's Dugan Yard.  The Championship is a double-elimination format.

The top-seeded Cardinals (30-9, 16-2 Empire 8) will take on No. 4 Utica College (8-22-1, 6-12 Empire 8) at 11 a.m. Thursday in the first game of the championship, while No. 2 Stevens Institute of Technology (26-13, 14-4 Empire 8) will face off against No. 3 Ithaca College (24-14, 13-5 Empire 8) at 2:30 p.m.

The teams that lose on Thursday will face each other at 10 a.m. on Friday, followed by both winners from Thursday squaring off at 1 p.m.
The winner from game three will face the loser of game four at 4 p.m. on Friday as well.  

Saturday will consist of the winner from game four facing the winner of game five at 10 a.m. with the possibility of an "if necessary" game at 1:30 p.m.

Tickets for each day are $5, while children 12 and under will be admitted free of charge. More information regarding the tournament can be found at the Empire 8 Conference Champioship Site.

Fisher's pitching staff this year currently ranks first as a team in ERA in the NCAA rankings with 2.17 ERA as of May 5. Freshman pitcher Jim Dawson leads the staff with a 0.90 ERA and has posted an 8-0 record. Opponents are hitting just .197 off him in nine appearances.

The Cardinals as a team are hitting .302, while outscoring their opponents 296 to 123. Nate Roethel leads the team with his .376 batting average and first baseman Scott Eisenmenger leads Fisher with 47 RBIs and eight home runs.

This year marks the fourth time in program history and under current head coach Brandon Potter that the Cardinals have posted 30 wins or more.  The team's 30^th win this season, marked the first time in the programs 29-year history that the Cardinals reached the 30-win mark during the regular season.