PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Five pitchers combined to scatter three hits and did not allow a run on Wednesday as the St. John Fisher College baseball team ran its winning streak to four games with a 10-0 rout of Alfred State in the Cardinals' home opener at Dugan Yard. With the win, Fisher improved to 4-0 while the Pioneers closed out the afternoon at 1-2.
RJ Kuruts (2-0), who was named the Empire 8 Pitcher of the Week and was included in the D3baseball.com Team of the Week, started for Fisher and went 3.0 scoreless frames while accounting for two strikeouts.
Anthony Brophy fanned two and surrendered one hit over two innings of work before giving way to
Michael Poirier who gave up one hit and finished with four strikeouts over two innings.
Hunter Walsh tossed one inning while
Marty Williams pitched a perfect ninth frame.
After swapping zeroes over the first two innings, Fisher chased the Pioneer's starter in the third after tagging him for five runs on five hits and an error. Joseph Ruggiero got the inning started with a single to center and moved to third following a double to deep right field by
Justin Graham. With two on and no outs, both runners moved up a bag on a wild pitch with Ruggiero crossing home plate to make it 1-0.
Brian Norsen kept the inning going after he worked a walk as Graham scored on ball four to double the lead to 2-0. As the inning continued,
Noah Campanelli singled in a run with an RBI-single before crossing home plate when
James Murphy blasted a run-scoring triple to make it 4-0. With a runner at third and still only one away,
Adam Zebrowski belted a single up the gut that scored Murphy before the Pioneers could retire the side.
Leading by five runs in the bottom of the fourth, Fisher added to its lead as Graham walked and proceeded to steal both second and third base before being driven in on a sacrifice fly from Campanelli to make it 6-0.
Following a 1-2-3 top of the fifth, the Cardinals stayed hot in the home half of the inning with two more runs on two hits including an RBI-single from
Luke Duffy to open up an eight-run cushion heading to the top of the sixth.
Ahead by eight runs already, Fisher's bats continued to find the ball with Graham leading off the bottom of the sixth with his second double before advancing home as Norsen followed suit with a run-scoring double of his own. After moving up a bag on a wild pitch, Norsen scored the 10th run of the game when Murphy lifted a sacrifice fly to center.
In all, Fisher collected 13 hits in the win with Graham, Norsen and Murphy each coming up with two apiece. Duffy went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a pair of walks while Campanelli was 1-for-3 with two RBI, a walk and a run scored.
Ben Lavery, Ruggiero, and
Jack Kelleher rounded out the offense with one hit each.
The Cardinals will look to keep their momentum alive at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday when they welcome the University of Rochester to Dugan Yard for a non-conference doubleheader.
