PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher baseball team came away with a loss and a tie in a doubleheader against SUNY Brockport on Tuesday afternoon at Dugan Yard.
The Cardinals moved to 17-14-1 overall (12-5-1 Empire 8) with the results. Brockport, alone atop the Empire 8 standings, improved to 27-3-2 (16-1-1 Empire 8).
Game 1: St. John Fisher 4, Brockport 12 (7 innings)
Brockport set the tone with four runs in the opening frame, with two coming on Zach Eldred's home run.
The Cardinals got two back in the bottom half of the inning, but Brockport put up another four-spot in the third to extend its lead to 8-2.
Brendan Bucello and Scott Sleurs had run-scoring singles in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, to cut Brockport's lead to 8-4.
The Golden Eagles responded with four runs, three by way of Eldred's second home run of the ballgame in the seventh, to pull away from the Cardinals in the later innings.
Eldred finished 3-for-4 with a walk and six RBI.
Mario Cubello and Jordan Perry led the Cardinals with two hits apiece in three plate appearances.
Game 2: St. John Fisher 10, Brockport 10
Four hours came and went, and the Cardinals and Golden Eagles had to settle for a 10-10 tie after running out of daylight in the second game of the day at Dugan Yard.
The excruciatingly long yet compelling ballgame featured 20 runs, 21 hits, 21 walks, 11 pitchers (six for Fisher, five for Brockport) and four errors between the teams. The tie marked the third in Fisher history and, as fate would have it, the first since an 8-8 draw against Brockport in April 2008.
After Brockport again jumped out to an early lead with a three-run first inning, the Cardinals plated four runs in their first turn at the plate, getting one on a Jordan Perry single and three on a Jake Crantz double. The Cardinals pushed their lead to 7-3 in the second inning on a two-run homer by Cubello and an RBI single by Crantz, who tied his career high with four RBI.
Brockport scored three runs in the top of the fourth to pull within a run, but the Cardinals gave themselves some breathing room again in the fifth. Jackson Frey drove in one with a single, and Bucello plated two with a double to give Fisher a 10-6 lead.
The Golden Eagles' pesky offense kept the pressure on, though, scoring twice in the sixth and once in the seventh to pull even. They threatened to take the lead in the 9th, loading the bases with one out, but Patrick McGuire got James Dixon to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to keep the game in a deadlock at 10.
And, thanks to the dwindling daylight, that's exactly where the score had to stay.
Up Next
The Cardinals face Russell Sage in a doubleheader at 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday.
