PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Sophomore Emily McManus broke the St. John Fisher single-season home runs record as the Cardinals split two games on Day 2 of the Empire 8 Softball Championship Tournament at the Fisher Softball Complex.
The top-seeded Cardinals (28-14) beat No. 3-seeded SUNY Geneseo (28-12) 10-2 in five innings in Friday's morning session and fell 6-4 to No. 2-seeded Alfred (30-9) in the fourth and final ballgame of the day. Alfred, 3-0 in the tournament, needs just one more victory to win its fourth conference championship and claim the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Fisher faces No. 4-seeded Utica in Game 9 of the tournament at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The winner would advance to face Alfred at 1:30 p.m.
Game 1: St. John Fisher 10, Geneseo 2
The game went from 0-0 to 10-0 in a hurry in the bottom of the fourth, as the Cardinals pounded open the floodgates after a quiet offensive start.
McManus (error), Mari Spitz (single) and Amalia DeMartino (walk) reached base to set the table for Tori LoPresto, who opened the scoring with an RBI single to center. Katie Mannis followed with a bases-loaded walk to put Fisher ahead 2-0.
Three more runs scored two batters later, when Madi Rose doubled and advanced to third on a throwing error. Maddie Donlin brought in Rose with a single up the middle before Taylor Shackleton drove a two-run homer to left center to make the score 8-0.
Alyssa Dawson scored on a double steal with Liv Godley, and Maddie Herdlein drove in her first run of the season with a double to center to cap the eight-hit, 10-run inning, which also included a pair of Geneseo errors. The Cardinals sent 14 batters to the plate in the frame.
Ainsley Evanetski earned her team-leading 14th victory of the season. She allowed two runs on six hits and struck out two batters.
Game 2: St. John Fisher 4, Alfred 6
Alfred broke a 4-4 tie with two runs in the bottom of the sixth and escaped trouble in the seventh to move within a win of its fourth E8 title in the final game of the day at the SJF Softball Complex.
The Cardinals and Saxons, the top two seeds in the tournament, traded blows from start to finish.
After Alfred went ahead 1-0 in the first, Fisher came right back and tied the game in the top of the second.
After Alfred regained the lead in the third on Jessica Remm's solo home run, Fisher responded with two runs in the top of the fourth, taking a 3-2 lead on DeMartino's two-run homer to left.
After Remm drove in two more with a single in the bottom of the fourth, McManus belted a solo homer in the fifth to once again bring the game to a tie.
The Saxons scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth – one on an error, another on a groundout – to take a 6-4 lead.
The Cardinals brought the winning run to the plate in the top of the seventh but couldn't get one more big hit. Alfred pitcher Kendall Steward, who earned her 22nd victory of the season, got Spitz to fly out before striking out DeMartino to wiggle out of the jam.
McManus hit her 15th home run of the season in the ballgame, breaking the single-season program record. Spitz and DeMartino each had three hits in four trips to the plate.
Up Next
The Cardinals face Utica in an elimination game at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
