St. John Fisher Baseball Advances In NCAAs With Win Over Westminster
The St. John Fisher College baseball team scored in six of the eight innings it batted in and defeated Westminster College 13-7 on Wednesday in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championship Mideast Regional in Marietta, OH.
With the win, No. 4 Fisher improves to 30-10 overall and will face the winner of No. 1 Marietta vs. No. 8 LaRoche at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. This is just the second time the Cardinals have ever reached the 30-win plateau. In 2010, Fisher set a College-record for victories, going 31-14.
Fisher pounded out 18 hits with six starters enjoying multi-hit games. Fisher batters provided plenty of offense for Cardinals ace Justin D’Amato. The sophomore raised his season record to a College-record 11-0 on the year. He fanned eight batters over seven innings, while allowing four earned runs.
Steve Karnyski, who was named as the Empire 8 Conference Player of the Year for the second-straight season earlier this week, led Fisher on the day. The senior first baseman was 3-for-4 with four runs scored, three RBI and three stolen bases.
Junior outfielder Sean Osterman led Fisher with four hits in the game, needing just a home run for the cycle. Ben Bostick went 3-for-5 with three RBI, while Brad Rush finished with three hits (two doubles) and three runs scored.
Chris Roeder and Peter Krystzof each picked up two hits and stole a base.
Fisher never trailed, taking the lead in the bottom of the first. Karnyski singled on the first pitch he saw and stole second. After a single by Osterman put runners on the corners, Bostick singled to short to score the run.
The Cardinals broke it open with four runs in the second and three in the third.
With one out and runners on first and third – after singles by Rush and Roeder – Karnyski hit would could have been an inning-ending double play ball to the shortstop. The shortstop, however, bobbled the grounder and was only able to get the out at second, as Karnyski just beat the throw to first.
After Karnyski stole second, he scored after a throwing error by the pitcher following a bunt from Krysztof. Two pitches later, Osterman hit an RBI-triple and scored on a single up the middle by Bostick to make it 5-0.
Following a two-run homer by Titans, Fisher scored three in the third. Matt Klock singled to start the frame and Rush followed with a double, placing runners on second and third. Nicholas Flemister then hit one past the first baseman, allowing the two runners to score.
Karnyski scored Fisher’s third run of the inning. With Karnyski on second and Krysztof on first (both players reached on base hits), the pitcher picked-off Krysztof. Krysztof, however, was able to stay in the run-down long enough for Karnyski to score from second.
Westminster trailed 10-2 before scoring three runs on four hits in the top of the seventh. The Cardinals, however, answered with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Roeder singled and scored on a double to left-center from Karnyski. Karnyski then scored on a single by Krysztof, who scored on an RBI-single from Ben Bostick.
The eight-team Mideast Regional is a double-elimination format. The Cardinals will also play at least one game on Friday.