CORTLAND, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College baseball team will play with its season on the line on Saturday after the Cardinals fell to nationally-ranked Endicott College, 10-1, on Friday afternoon in the opening game of the NCAA Championship Regional at Cortland's Wallace Field.  With the loss, the Cardinals, who are receiving votes in the latest D3baseball.com national poll, slipped to 30-15 while the No. 19 Gulls improved to 37-6.

The Cardinals will look to extend their season at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday when they take on Bridgewater State while the Gulls will battle the Cortland Red Dragons who hit a walk-off 10th inning home run to down the Bears, 4-3, earlier on Friday.

Connor McHugh (7-2) started for Fisher and gave 4.1 innings where he let in four runs (three earned) on three hits before giving way Logan Persse who got two outs with one pitch.  Joseph Tronetti was tagged for three runs on four hits without recording an out while Tim Geissel yielded three runs in an inning of work.  Jason Wall held Endicott to just one hit over the final two innings.

After three scoreless innings of play, Fisher got on the board in the top of the fourth as Michael Beimel led off the frame with an infield single.  From there, Nick Lemire worked a four-pitch walk before Brian Norsen reached on an infield error to load the bases.  With the infield occupied, Luke Duffy stepped in and lifted a sacrifice fly to left that pushed Beimel across the plate to make it 1-0 heading to the bottom of the inning.

Facing a one-run gap, Endicott responded with two runs on two hits before McHugh stopped the bleeding with back-to-back strikeouts to escape the jam.

Ahead by a run, Endicott worked a quick top of the fifth before adding to its lead with two more runs following an error by the Cardinals and a walk with the bases loaded to make it, 4-1.

In the sixth inning, the Gulls boomed a leadoff double and smacked back-to-back singles to load the bases before a wild pitch plated a run and advanced the runners.  With two on and no outs, Endicott drove in another run with a single to right before a sacrifice fly staked the Gulls to a six-run cushion.

Holding a 7-1 edge late in the game, Endicott continued to find gaps as the Gulls plated three more runs in the bottom of the seventh and held Fisher to one hit over the final five innings to secure their spot in the winners' bracket.

The Cardinals managed just three hits in the loss with Beimel going 2-for-3 with a run scored.  Ethan Perry was 1-for-3 while Duffy drew a walk and was credited with the team's lone RBI.