St. John Fisher Earns At-Large Bid to NCAA Championship
The St. John Fisher College baseball team received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championship on Monday morning. The Cardinals are the No. 4 seed in the eight-team Mideast Regional and will play No. 5 Westminster College at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The eight-team double-elimination regional is being hosted in Marietta, OH by Marietta College, the regional’s No. 1 seed and the defending national champions.
This is Fisher’s third all-time appearance in NCAA action. Fisher is 5-4 all-time in NCAA Regional play, including a second-place finish in 2010 at the New York Regional to SUNY Cortland, who finished as the national runner-up the following week.
Fisher (29-10) is receiving votes in both the national coaches poll and the d3baseball.com poll. The Cardinals’ 29 wins this year are the most victories in the regular season.
Fisher ranks among the national leaders in several offensive categories including: slugging percentage (1
st - .512), triples (1
st – 36), stolen bases (2
nd – 3.85 pg), scoring (5
th – 8.7 rpg) and batting average (8
th - . 340).
Two-time Empire 8 Conference Player of the Year Steve Karnyski leads Fisher’s offensive attack. The senior, who is also an Academic All-American with a 3.91 cumulative grade point average while majoring in Biology, leads Fisher in hits (68), runs (49) and doubles (15).
Fisher’s pitching staff ranks 37
th out of the 364 schools in Division III with a 3.36 earned run average. Sophomore Justin D’Amato is the team’s top hurler. The two-time Empire 8 Pitcher of the Year set the Fisher single-season record this year for wins (10) and strikeouts (89) and ranks in the top 10 nationally in both categories.
Fisher split a doubleheader at Westminster earlier this year. The Cardinals lost the opener 2-1, but won the nightcap, 9-0.
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NCAA Division III Baseball Championship