PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College baseball team had its home debut spoiled on Friday afternoon as the Cardinals fell to visiting Alfred State College, 4-3, at Dugan Yard.  With the defeat, the Cardinals dipped below .500 and finished the day at 6-7 while the Pioneers improved to 5-15 overall.

Alfred State jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning after its cleanup hitter belted a two-run shot that cleared the right field wall to stake the visitors to a 2-0 lead.

After holding the Pioneers at bay in the second inning, Fisher answered in the home half of the frame with a run of its own as Brian Norsen worked a leadoff walk and moved around the horn when Michael Beimel smacked a single to center.  With two on and no outs, Luke Duffy stepped in and lifted a sacrifice fly to center that plated Norsen and made it 2-1 before the Pioneers could retire the side.

Following a 1-2-3 top of the third, Fisher's bats stayed hot in the bottom of the inning as Nick Lemire led off with a single to center before Noah Campanelli put two runs on the board with a home run to left that made it 3-2 in Fisher's favor.

With one run separating the two teams, the game moved to the top of the fifth where Alfred State chased Fisher's starting pitching and scored two runs on four hits to forge ahead, 4-3.

Trailing by a run late in the game, Fisher had the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth and again in the seventh inning, but was unable to push the tying run across as the Pioneers worked into and out of trouble both times.

Down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Fisher put the tying run on when Patrick Kravitz singled to left before moving into scoring position following a wild pitch. With a runner at second and one down, the Cardinals had two chances to come up with a big hit, but was unable to find a gap as Alfred State induced a fly out before ending the game on a groundout to third.

In all, Fisher had nine hits in the loss with Campanelli, Beimel, Lemire and Kravitz each accounting for two hits.

Tim Geissel (1-2) started for Fisher and lasted 4.1 innings where he allowed four runs on seven hits to go along with two strikeouts.  Logan Persse pitched two outs before giving way to Christian Maloney who dealt four shutout innings overall.

The Cardinals will look to get back in the win column at 12 p.m. on Saturday when they travel to York College of Pennsylvania for a non-conference doubleheader.