PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The nationally-ranked and top-seeded St. John Fisher College baseball team fell to second-seeded Ithaca College, 10-6, on Saturday morning in the Empire 8 Championship game at Dugan Yard.  With the loss, No. 14 Fisher moved to 30-10 on the season and will await its fate as the NCAA will announce its selections for the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship after midnight Monday morning.  Fans can tune in to see if Fisher earned an at-large bid by visiting ncaa.com.  The Bombers, who moved to 28-11 with the win, secured their sixth consecutive Empire 8 title and the Conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship, which is scheduled to begin next week. 

Fisher, which was playing in its third straight elimination game, fell behind in the second inning after Ithaca plated six runs on four hits and four uncharacteristic errors by the Cardinals.  Fisher wouldn't find its footing until the top of the sixth inning after plating a pair on the strength of one hit.  Senior Evan Ryan worked a walk to start the inning off and moved to second after the Bombers airmailed a pickoff attempt.  Fisher's cleanup hitter, Scott Eisenmenger stepped to the dish and blasted a two-run home run that just cleared the left field foul pole to pull the Cardinals to within four runs, 6-2.

After holding Ithaca at bay in the bottom of the sixth, Fisher struck again with two more runs after Ryan hammered a two-run homer of his own to left that plated Justin Graham who had earned a four-pitch walk earlier in the frame.

Trailing by just two runs heading to the bottom of the seventh, the momentum swung back in Ithaca's favor as the Bombers put up four runs on four hits including two doubles to make it a 10-4 game.

Fisher continued to battle heading to the eighth as Eisenmenger led off with a double down the left field line.  Allen Murphy replaced him at second with an RBI-double of his own to make it a five-run game before Thomas Pasquale and Ryan Prevost reached to load the bases with one out.  The next hitter, Jack Trotman, stepped in and drove in a run with a fielder's choice, but that was all Fisher managed as the Bombers closed the door on a big inning with a 10-6 lead.

In the top of the ninth, Fisher had the leadoff hitter on after Ryan singled up the middle, but a double play followed by a groundout to third ended the game as the Bombers won all three of their games in the Championship.

Dillan Wilkinson started on the bump for Fisher and took the loss to move to 3-1.  He went 1.2 innings and allowed five runs (two earned) on three hits before being lifted for Caleb Lee who recorded one out.  Kevin Berge pitched a scoreless inning while Trevor Rumsey yielded three runs on four hits in 3.1 innings of relief.  Kyle Chambers surrendered a run on one hit in two-thirds of an inning and Matt Toohey pitched a scoreless eighth.   

Murphy, Anthony Brophy and Kelsey were each named to the All-Tournament team for their efforts.