BALTIMORE, Md. – The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College baseball team's power was on full display on Sunday in the team's season-opener as the Cardinals, who are ranked 21st nationally according to Collegiate Baseball, clubbed five home runs to defeat Johns Hopkins University, 19-13, at Babb field.  With the win, Fisher begins the 2019 season at 1-0 while the Blue Jays fell to 1-1.

After two scoreless innings of play, the Cardinals got on the board in a big way with four runs on three hits.  The inning began when Stephen Edgett worked a walk and moved into scoring position as Justin Graham singled to right.  Freshman Jack Kelleher moved both runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt before Thomas Pasquale plated three runs with one swing as the junior cracked a shot over the right field fence to make it 3-0.  With three runs already in and one away, Allen Murphy stepped to the dish and blasted a solo homer to left to make it 4-0 before Johns Hopkins could get out of the inning.

After setting the side down in order in the bottom of the third, Fisher struck again in the fourth when Antona Mantova led off the inning with a solo shot to give the Cardinals a five-run cushion heading to the home half of the inning.

Fisher added to its lead in the top of the fifth with a pair of runs on one hit as Pasquale led off the inning with a walk before Adam Zebrowski collected his first collegiate hit in the form of a two-run shot that just cleared the left field fence to make it 7-0 in the Cardinals' favor. 

The Blue Jays finally got something going in the bottom of the fifth after coming up with a two-run jack to cut the deficit to five runs, but the Cardinals would get those runs back and more in the top of the seventh after producing four runs on just one hit after a two out error kept the rally going for Fisher.

Leading by nine runs in the home half of the seventh, Fisher gave one back in the bottom of the inning after Johns Hopkins came away with one run after a fielder's choice pushed a leadoff walk across the plate to make it 11-3 with two innings left to play.

The Cardinals blew the game wide open in the eighth after coming up with five runs on three hits.  Kelleher got the inning going with a leadoff single before Murphy moved him over with an infield single of his own.  With two on and one away, Ryan Simmons worked a walk before Ben Martin drove in a run and reloaded the bases with an RBI-walk.  After a pitching change for Hopkins, Mantova stepped in and mashed a grand slam that cleared the center field fence and made it 16-3 in the Cardinals' favor.

Holding a 13-run advantage, Fisher turned to the bullpen before the Blue Jays scored three in the bottom of the eighth to make it a 10-run affair.  From there, the Cardinals plated three more runs in the top of the ninth with Murphy, Simmons and Michael Beimel collecting an RBI each.

Facing a steep climb with just three outs left in the game, the Blue Jays made things interesting with seven runs on four hits before Jack Delaney came in and closed the door on the comeback effort.

In all, the Cardinals clubbed 12 hits and had 17 RBI on the day.  Mantova was 4-for-5 in the win with two homers and seven RBI while Kelleher and Murphy had two hits each in five at-bats.  Graham was 1-for-4 while Pasquale had one hit in four at-bats with a home run and three RBI.  Zembrowski drove in a pair with a homer.

RJ Kuruts took the ball to start the game and earned the win after tossing 6.0 innings and allowing just two runs on five hits.  The sophomore, who finished with five strikeouts, had retired 12 straight batters before yielding his first hit.  Kyle Chambers allowed one run over an inning before giving way to Dillan Wilkinson who was tagged for three unearned runs over an inning of work.  Rylan Baker, Jason Wasilnak and Delaney combined to finish the final inning.   

Fisher will return to action at 2 p.m. on Monday when it plays another nine-inning contest with Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.