St. John Fisherl Opens 2012 Campaign with a Sweep
The St. John Fisher College baseball team opened the 2012 season on Sunday afternoon at SUNY Purchase, sweeping the Panthers. Pitching prevailed in both games, with Jason Beaumont earning the 17-2 win in the first game, getting a good amount of offensive support, while Justin D’Amato grabbed the game two 7-1 victory.
Beaumont, a senior transfer from Lynn University, pitched four innings as the starter in game one, giving up just one hit and two walks while striking out nine Purchase batters.
The offense made things easy on the Cardinals, accumulating 12 runs on six hits in the top of the third inning. It all started with a Ben Ward double, and when Chris Roeder doubled to follow suit, the shortstop drove in Fisher’s first run of the season. After a Ben Bostick walk, reigning Empire 8 Conference Player of the Year Steve Karnyski had a RBI single, driving in Roeder.
Roeder drove in another run in the inning on a sacrifice fly after Peter Krysztof snagged two RBI on a base hit. Brad Rush capped the action packed inning with a three-run homer, scoring Bostick and Karnsyki.
Rush and Karnyski each finished 3-for-4 from the plate with three runs scored, while Rush had four RBI and Karnyski ended up with two. Roeder finished with three RBI while Krysztof and Ryan Shaugnessy each drove in two runs. Matt Klock also scored twice while drawing a walk.
Adam Pettinella came in as middle relief for Beaumont, pitching a shutout inning, giving up no hits or walks while striking out one Panther. George Weber also earned a shutout inning in the sixth, forcing three fly outs. Kieran Murphy closed the game, taking the mound for the seventh, giving up three hits and two runs while striking out three.
BOX SCORE: Fisher 7, SUNY Purchase 1
Justin D’Amato, the Empire 8’s Pitcher and Rookie of the Year from just a year ago, picked up from where he left off, throwing in five innings. In his time on the mound, the sophomore struck out nine hitters while giving up no runs on four hits. D’Amato also gave out no base on balls in the outing.
The offense showed its potency early again, scoring six runs in the first two innings. Bostick hit a home run that scored Roeder after he reached on a single in the first. The second inning saw four runs on four hits, starting with a Klock double, a Sean Osterman single and stolen base and a Tim Coykendall RBI. Bostick came through again, with a RBI base hit to score Osterman. Karnyski then doubled to drive in Ward and Coykendall.
The score would remain 6-0 until Fisher added its final run in the fifth inning, when Rush tripled to drive in Bostick, who earlier in the inning singled and stole second.
Fisher will return to action at 3 p.m. against Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology down in Winter Haven, FL in the opening game of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.