ELMIRA, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College baseball team grinded out an extra inning win over Elmira College on Wednesday night as the Cardinals upended the Soaring Eagles, 17-12, in a 12-inning Empire 8 game played at Dunn Field.  With the win, Fisher, which is receiving votes in the latest D3baseball.com national poll, climbed to 22-5 on the year and 13-1 in the conference while the Soaring Eagles slid to 3-21 overall and 1-9 against Empire 8 opposition.

After building a 9-5 lead through the first four and a half innings of play, the Cardinals faltered as Elmira plated seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to vault ahead, 12-9.

After a scoreless sixth inning, the Cardinals got a run back in the top of the seventh and again in the top of the eighth with Noah Campanelli and Justin Graham each coming up with an RBI to make it 12-11 heading to the ninth.

Needing a run to keep its hopes alive, Fisher took advantage of an Elmira error as Adam Zebrowski reached and moved all the way to third as a result of the miscue.  With the tying run just 90 feet away, Luke Duffy stepped in and lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left field to keep Fisher in the game at 12-12.

The Cardinals' bullpen held the Soaring Eagles in check in the bottom of the ninth and again in the 10th frame as the heart of the order was due up for Fisher in the top of the 11th.  Patrick Kravitz led off the inning and reached after being hit by a pitch before moving to second when Joe Ruggiero laid down a sac bunt to move the runner into scoring position.  With one away and the winning run on, Fisher loaded the bases as Duffy worked a walk before James Ward, Jr. got on base after being plunked.  With the go-ahead run at third, Elmira was able to escape the jam after a strikeout looking and a groundout to short ended the threat and kept the game level at 12-12.

After stranding a pair of runners in the home half of the 11th, Elmira was unable to get off the field quickly in the top of the 12th as the Cardinals batted around and came away with five runs on four hits including a two-run single from Duffy to take a 17-12 edge into the bottom of the frame.

Leading by five, Christian O'Brien sealed the win and earned his first-career win on the mound after a 1-2-3 inning that included two strikeouts.

The Cardinals used eight pitchers overall with Marty Williams taking the hill to start where he allowed three unearned runs in an inning of work.  Logan Persse pitched a perfect second inning while Connor McHugh was tagged for three runs on four hits over two frames.  Michael Heilig was hit for six runs (one earned) in 1.2 innings of relief before Jack Delaney yielded just one hit over four outs.  Andrew Inglee, Rylan Baker and O'Brien combined to throw four scoreless innings for head coach Brandon Potter.

The Cardinals are back home for an Empire 8 doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday as Fisher hosts Utica College at Dugan Yard.