PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The top-seeded St. John Fisher College baseball is moving on in the Empire 8 Championship after the Cardinals defeated fourth-seeded Elmira College, 14-2, on Saturday afternoon in a winner-take-all contest at Dugan Yard. With the win, Fisher improved to 28-14 while the Soaring Eagles ended their season with a 13-24-1 overall mark.
After striking out the side in the top of the first, Fisher came to bat in the home half of the inning and proceeded to hang five runs on Elmira courtesy of five hits.
Ben Lavery got the inning going with a single to center before
Michael Beimel moved him to third base with a double. With two on and one away,
Nick Lemire walked to load the bases before
Brian Norsen smacked a double that plated two runs. As the inning continued,
Luke Duffy lifted a sacrifice fly before
James Murphy and
Ethan Perry each collected an RBI to make it 5-0.
Fisher struck again in the second inning after Norsen stepped in with two runners aboard and crushed a three-run home run to left that made it an eight-run affair.
Leading 8-0 in the bottom of the fourth, Fisher tacked onto its lead as
Noah Campanelli delivered a solo shot to left-center before a double off Duffy's bat plated Beimel who had doubled earlier in the frame.
Facing a 10-run gap, Elmira got on the board in the top of the fifth with a pair of runs on four hits, but was unable to put together a quick inning as Campanelli drove in his second run of the game with a single to center to make it 11-2 heading to the sixth.
From there, Fisher added three more runs to its lead in the bottom of the eight as Duffy popped his second home run of the series to make it 14-2.
Norsen was 3-for-5 with a home run, a double and five RBI while Duffy had a homer and a double paired with five runs batted in. Murphy had three hits in the win while Perry, Beimel, Lavery and Campanelli each had two hits in all.
Michael Poirier pitched two innings to open the game and finished with four strikeouts on his line while
Ryan O'Mara (7-0) got the win in relief after yielding two runs on four hits over four frames.
Tim Geissel pitched two scoreless innings and
Christian Maloney netted two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.
The Cardinals will host second-seeded Utica University in a doubleheader on Friday in the Empire 8 Championship finale.