KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College softball team split on its final day in Florida as the Cardinals, who are ranked second overall in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association national poll, defeated Franklin College in 11 innings before falling to Simmons in the eighth frame.  Fisher closed out its spring trip at 8-2.

FISHER 1, FRANKLIN 0 (11 INNINGS)

Both teams struggled to generate anything offensively with just seven combined hits through the first seven innings of play as the game remained scoreless heading into the eighth.  With the international tiebreaker rule in effect, Franklin placed a runner at second base with no outs, but could not score the go-ahead run as Lindsey Thayer induced a pop out and struck out a pair to take it to the bottom of the eighth.

The Cardinals were unable to plate the winning run in the home half of the inning and held the Grizzlies scoreless through 11 innings.  In the bottom of the 11th, Katie Mazierski bunted Kristina Balsano over to third to set the Cardinals up with just one out.  Emma Savas stepped to the dish and dropped a squeeze bunt that was placed perfectly to allow Balsano to scamper home to lift Fisher to the 1-0 win.

Thayer went the distance for fisher in the circle and moved to 5-1 with the win.  The junior pitched 11.0 shutout innings and allowed just three hits while tallying 14 strikeouts. 

SIMMONS 4, FISHER 3 (8 INNINGS)

Like the first game, neither team was able to push a run across the plate until the top of the sixth inning when the Cardinals broke through with three runs on three hits and a Simmons' error.  Julia Sortisio led off with a single and was moved to second by a sacrifice bunt from Savas.  Jessica Sardina drew a walk to put two on with just one out as Sarah Kubik clubbed a two-run double to the gap in left center to make it 2-0 in Fisher's favor.  After moving to third on a groundout, Sardina would come around to score the game's third run after an infield error by the Sharks allowed the freshman to race home.

In the home half of the inning, Simmons got all three runs back with three hits and a two-out error by Fisher to knot things up at 3-3 heading into the top of the seventh.

After a scoreless seventh inning of play, Fisher moved Karlie Neale over to third base with a sacrifice bunt, but the Cardinals were unable to drive her in as the game turned to the bottom of the eighth. 

Simmons moved the runner to third and scored the game-winning run after dropping down a bunt.  The Cardinals fielded the ball and had the runner beat at home, but Simmons slide in under the tag and earned the one-run win.

Monica Moses started the game but did not factor in the decision after allowing three unearned runs on four hits over 6.0 innings of work.  Thayer (5-2) was tagged with the loss after allowing one run in 1.1 innings of relief.

Fisher will open play its home-opener at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 18 when it hosts the University of Pitt-Bradford at the Softball Complex.