Baseball | 4/18/2024 3:55:00 PM
PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher University baseball team, winners of four straight, head to Houghton this weekend for an Empire 8 matchup with the Highlanders.
Last Time Out
Fisher faced RIT on the Tigers' campus on Wednesday, shutting out their cross-town rivals, 6-0, behind excellent starting pitching from sophomore
Benjamin Huckans and scoreless relief by freshman
Luke Horton and senior
Anthony Lang. Huckans, making just his fourth pitching appearance of the season, went six innings while allowing just two hits and striking out six. Horton followed with a scoreless seventh, then Lang handled the final two innings. Senior
Ethan Perry led the way at the plate, getting two hits and two RBI.
Know Your Foe
Houghton enters the weekend with a 11-14 record, including a 5-3 mark in conference play. They lost two of three games last weekend to Elmira.
The Highlanders' star player is a pitcher, senior Ethan Cetton. In 43 innings pitched across eight games, the righty leads the Empire 8 in ERA (2.72), opposing batting average (.227), total strikeouts (50), and is tied for third for wins (3). He has twice struck out 10 batters this season, including last weekend against Elmira.
At the plate, Chris Vancheri leads Houghton in several categories, including batting average (.329), OPS (.900), hits (26), home runs (2), slugging (.468), and total bases (37).
The Cardinals are 30-6 all-time against the Highlanders and have won their last 12 games against them: the last loss came on May 4, 2019. Fisher outscored Houghton in last season's three-game series by a combined score of 29-4.
Fun Fact: Houghton was a member of the NAIA until joining the NCAA and E8 in 2012.
Fulton For Sure
Sophomore
Ethan Fulton is a two-way player, but this season he's especially impressed on the mound. The Trumansburg native sits behind only Cetton in the Empire 8 leader board for ERA (2.80), opposing batting average (.228) and strikeouts (45), and is tied with the Highlander for third in wins (3). Unlike the 3-3 Cetton, however, Fulton has yet to lose a single game: he's 3-0 on the year.
Fulton has especially been strong over his last three starts- all wins- where he's pitched 18 innings with a 0.50 ERA, allowing 13 hits and just one earned run while striking out 28.
Fresh Frey
Freshmen haven't been able to get many at-bats so far this season for the Cardinals, but one of those who has is making an impact:
Jackson Frey. The Grand Island graduate has played eight games for Fisher, starting three of them. He's hitting .267 in 15 at-bats with four RBI and seven runs scored so far, and may make an even bigger difference as he continues to adjust to the Division III level.
The Conference Road Remaining
The Cardinals have just four regular season conference games remaining after this weekend: a makeup game against Russell Sage College on Friday, April 26, and a three-game finale with Alfred University on May 4 and 5. The Cardinals currently sit first in the conference standings, 10-1 (14-14 overall), ahead of Elmira and Russell Sage.
Fisher's lone loss in conference play this year was to Sage in the first conference game of the season: the opening game of a doubleheader on March 26, when the Cardinals fell 13-10. Should the two teams finish tied at the end of the season, a tiebreaker will be needed to determine who has home field advantage in the Empire 8 tournament- however, such a possibility remains just that for now- a possibility.
What Comes Next
Fisher travels to Brockport on Tuesday, April 23, for a 4:00 P.M. game with the Golden Eagles.
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