KEUKA PARK, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College baseball team continued its run through the Empire 8 on Saturday after sweeping both ends of a doubleheader against the Keuka College Wolves. With the wins, Fisher, which has already won the Empire 8 Regular Season Championship and earned the right to host the postseason tournament, improved to 24-12 on the year and 16-2 in league play while the Wolves fell to 15-17-1 overall and 7-10-1 in the Empire 8 standings.
FISHER 11, KEUKA 0
Alec Teska extended his scoreless inning streak after the senior held Keuka to just four hits over five shutout innings. The Cato native, who has not surrendered a run in his last 31.0 innings, improved to 5-3 on the year and finished with three strikeouts.
Tim Geissel tossed the final two innings and yielded just one hit in all.
The Cardinals broke through in the top of the second with three runs on four hits after sending eight hitters to the plate. All three runs came with two outs as
James Murphy drew a walk before
Jack Kelleher singled in a run with a base knock to center. With one run already on the board and two runners on base,
Jimmy McCardle kept the inning alive with a single to right that plated Murphy before
Noah Campanelli drove in a run with a single of his own to lift the visitors to a 3-0 edge.
After two scoreless innings, Fisher added to its lead in the top of the fifth after plating six runs on eight hits and four Keuka errors. Campanelli led off with a single to center before advancing around the bases on an RBI-double by
Ben Lavery. From there,
Michael Beimel singled before Lavery scurried home on a throwing error to make it 5-0. With Beimel at second base, Keuka gave Fisher another free run with its second misplay of the inning before
Luke Duffy and Murphy came up with consecutive singles. With two on and two away, the Wolves were poised to escape the inning, but would drop a fly ball to center that allowed Duffy to cross home plate. The Cardinals took advantage of the extended inning as McCardle drove in a run with a single through the right side before Keuka could retire the side.
Holding a 9-0 advantage in the top of the seventh, Fisher tacked on two more runs when
Nick Lemire blasted a two-run single the opposite way to give the Cardinals an 11-0 cushion.
FISHER 8, KEUKA 2
Russell Dunlap (5-1) took the ball to begin the game and allowed two runs on five hits over five innings of work.
Patrick McGuire surrendered just one hit over two frames while
Christian Maloney did not allow a base runner over the final two innings.
Lemire carried over his hot hitting from the opener and put a two-spot on the board after belting a triple in the top of the first. The shortstop would come around to score the team's third run when
Brian Norsen reached on an error.
After giving one back in the home half of the inning, Fisher countered with four runs in the third and fourth frames with Lemire driving in another run before Lavery plated a pair with a timely single to make it 7-1 heading to the fifth.
The Wolves cut the gap to five runs with a run in the bottom of the fifth, but were unable to hold Fisher at bay as the Cardinals' lead grew to six in the seventh inning when McCardle legged out a triple with
Jake Meeker scoring on the play.
The Cardinals and Wolves will finish off their season series at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Dugan Yard.