BROCKPORT, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College baseball team jumped out to a three-run lead on Thursday, but was unable to close the door on SUNY Brockport as the Golden Eagles put together a late-game rally before delivering the walk-off hit in the 10th inning in a 4-3 decision at Clark V. Whited Field. With the loss, Fisher slipped to 7-9 on the year while the Golden Eagles posted their 12th straight win and closed out the day at 14-2.
After trading zeroes over the first three innings of play, Fisher got on the board first after plating a run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Michael Beimel to make it 1-0 in the top of the fourth.
Two innings later, Fisher struck again after scoring two more runs on just one hit with
Nick Lemire driving in a pair with a two-out double that split the outfielders and gave the visitors a 3-0 cushion.
Leading by three late in the game, Fisher gave one back in the home half of the sixth on a solo home run before allowing two runs on four hits in the bottom of the seventh to knot the game at three runs aside.
Both offenses were held in check over the next two frames before Fisher had the winning run at first following a walk by
James Murphy in the top of the 10th.
Evan Bowers moved the runner into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, but the Cardinals were unable to take advantage as Brockport retired the side without yielding the lead.
In the home half of the inning, the Golden Eagles led off with a single to right before the runner moved up a base on a groundout. With a man at second and one away, the home team jumped on the first pitched and lined a walk-off base hit to right for the 4-3 decision.
The Cardinals managed just three hits in the loss with
Noah Campanelli, Lemire and
Ben Lavery rounding out the offense.
Fisher used nine pitchers overall with
Connor McHugh,
Tim Geissel,
Kenneth Westbrook,
Jason Wall and
Christian O'Brien combining to throw five scoreless frames.
Patrick McGuire gave up one run on one hit in the sixth before being lifted for
Anthony Lang in the seventh who gave up two runs on two hits over a third of an inning.
Joseph Tronetti pitched two outs while
Conor Fitzgerald (0-1) was hit with the loss after allowing one run on two hits over 2.1 innings of work.
The Cardinals will look to get back in the win column at 1 p.m. on Saturday when they dive into Empire 8 play with a doubleheader against the Houghton College Highlanders in Houghton.
