St. John Fisher Wins ECACs
The St. John Fisher College baseball program won the ECAC Division III Metro Championship on Sunday. The top-seeded Cardinals earned a 6-0 win over No. 4 Rutgers-Camden on Sunday morning and then cruised to a 17-4 win over sixth-seeded SUNY Purchase in the championship game later in the day.
With the two wins, Fisher improves to 28-14 and will wait and see if it will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. Fisher, currently ranked No. 4 in the NCAA Division III New York Region, is looking to make its third NCAA appearance in the last four years.
Game One: Fisher 6, Rutgers-Camden 0
Junior southpaw Justin D’Amato threw no-hit ball for four innings went 7.2 innings, allowing just two hits. D’Amato (7-2) didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning and then walked the next two batters to load the bases with no outs. The two-time All-American, however, struck out the next three batters – the first two swinging and the third called – to work out of the jam and strand the bases full.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, scored a pair of runs in the second inning when junior first baseman Brad Rush doubled and scored on a home run by sophomore third baseman Shane Barley. It was Barley’s fifth home run of the season.
Fisher added another run in the seventh following a leadoff single by Barley. He advanced to second on a sacrifice and to third on a fly out. He scored on a single by senior rightfielder Ben Bostick.
Fisher put the game away in the bottom of the eighth, collecting three runs on three hits, sparked by a leadoff single from senior centerfielder Sean Osterman. Rush had a RBI single in the frame, junior leftfielder Mike Fahy tripled home a run and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Barley.
Shawn Corrigan relived D’Amato and recorded the final four outs to earn his second save of the year.
Championship Game: Fisher 17, SUNY Purchase 4
Fisher took the lead with six runs in the second inning, thanks largely in part from a grand slam from Osterman. The Cardinals scored in every inning after that – except for the fourth – pounding out 19 hits on the day. Bryant Moore also homered for the Cardinals, delivering a three-run shot.
Junior Mike Rynerson went six innings and kept his perfect record intact. He improved to 6-0 on the season after allowing just four hits and one earned run.
Senior DaveVanGorder was 2-for-2 with two RBI, while shortstop Chris Roeder and Rush were both 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Freshman Mike Roman was also 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Osterman led all Fisher batters with three hits in the game.