St. John Fisher Handles Medaille for Home Opener Win
The St. John Fisher College baseball team cruised to its ninth win of the season with a 14-1 win over visiting Medaille College on a sunny Thursday afternoon at Dugan Yard. With the home opener win, Fisher improves to 9-1, while Medaille remains winless at 0-9.
Senior Tim Johnson pitched strong for the Cardinals, throwing for seven innings and allowing just three hits and no earned runs. Johnson also fanned nine batters in his second win of the season.
Fisher got on the board early, when Ben Bostick singled up the middle to bring Peter Krysztof across home plate in the bottom of the first inning. Krysztof reached base after a fielding error by the Medaille third baseman, and then advanced to third after a failed pick-off attempt by the Maverick catcher.
In the third inning, Sean Osterman added a couple RBI to his stat line by scoring Cardinal first baseman Steve Karnyski from third base and Bostick from second. An error on the hit allowed Osterman to advance to second, while a wild pitch on the next batter let him move to third base. Fisher added its fourth run of the game in the same inning, when Matt Klock hit a long sacrifice fly to left center and scored Osterman.
Medaille added its only run of the game in the fourth inning that was unearned after the scorer reached on an error. After advancing to third base, Medaille’s Matt Darlak was brought across the bag on a sacrifice hit by teammate Mike Volpe. But Fisher countered the run with one of its own in the bottom of the inning, after Karnyski added another scored run off a double from Krysztof.
The Cardinals then exploded for six runs in the sixth inning, after Tim Coykendall reached on a walk by Medaille’s Jeff Benz. Benz entered the game at the beginning of the inning and was pulled in that same stanza after allowing five Fisher runs while only getting one man out. After walking Coykendall, Benz allowed him to advance with a wild pitch and walked Karnyski to put men at first and second. Another Medaille throwing error moved the two men up a base each, and Coykendall was then scored on a bunt single by Krysztof. Bostick made the score 9-1 with a single up the middle to clear the bases.
Bostick recorded his second steal of the game in that inning to become the Fisher’s career leader in stolen bases with 41 in his tenure. With the swipe, Bostick surpassed former Cardinal and current Fisher assistant coach Kevin Wing who recorded 40 from 2007-2011. The junior now sits at 16 stolen bases on the season, just four away from tying the single-season record of 20.
Osterman then mimicked Bostick by tallying an RBI on a single and stealing second base. Klock added his second RBI of the game with a single up the left side to score Osterman and Shane Barley, who came in as a pinch hitter, forced another walk from Benz to load the bases.
The Medaille pitcher was then forced from the game, but Chris Roeder reached on a fielder’s choice which allowed Klock to score Fisher’s sixth and final run of the inning.
In the eighth inning, Johnson was replaced on the mound by Ryan Smith, who made his season debut in cardinal and gold. Smith, back by two Fisher insurance runs in the bottom of the same inning, allowed no runs and struck out five of the 10 batters he faced.
Osterman led the Cardinals with three RBI and three runs scored, while Bostick tallied as many RBI and two runs scored. Krysztof also added two RBI and two runs of his own and Karnyski scored three runs.
Fisher will return to action at 1 p.m. in Struthers, Ohio for a doubleheader against Westminster College of Pennsylvania.