Johnson Breaks Hits Record at Houghton
PITTSFORD, NY— In their final regular season conference doubleheader, the Houghton Highlander seniors rose to occasion, clinching their first Empire 8 conference tournament bid and establishing a few new records in a split with perennial NCAA power St. John Fisher.
Game 1:
Victor Cavalieri threw a four-hit shutout, striking out nine batters and allowing only two walks, as the Highlanders defeated the Cardinals, 3-0.
Houghton opened the scoring in the first with a two-out rally. After back-to-back singles by
Taylor Huntsman and
Tage Johnson,
Ethan Duryea ripped a double to right field to put the Highlanders up by one. With runners on second and third,
Ben Closson ripped a shot just over the bag at third that caromed off the third baseman's glove into foul territory, allowing both Johnson and Duryea to score.
That would be all the lead Cavalieri would need as he did not allow a runner past second base until the seventh inning.
After cruising through six, Cavalieri hit some trouble in the final frame, walking the lead-off batter, followed by a single to center field. After striking out the next hitter, both runners advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. Cavalieri, however, collected himself and proceeded to strike out the next two batters to complete the shutout and the win.
Game 2:
In the first inning of game one,
Tage Johnson tied the all-time Houghton career record for hits—set by Michael Knapp in 2016—with a single to left-field. In the first inning of game two, he broke it. Johnson hit a hard ground ball to the left side. The Cardinal shortstop made a fantastic diving stop, but could not catch Johnson at first.
Johnson would later add to another of his Houghton career records with a deep double to the right-center gap.
Fisher, for their part, came ready to avenge the game one loss, scoring a run in the first. The score would remain 1-0 at the end of two when the rain came.
After a nearly two hour delay, neither team would score until the fifth, when the Cardinals exploded for seven runs, all with two outs.
Trailing 8-0 in the sixth,
Taylor Huntsman put the Highlanders on the board with a three-run blast over the left field wall.
Nick Melchiore would follow several batters later with an RBI single to centerfield.
The Cardinals added single runs in the sixth and seventh to give them some cushion.
Houghton threatened in the sixth and seventh, but stranded two runners in each frame before loading the bases in the eighth, only to fail to score again.
Finally, in the top of the ninth, the Highlanders threatened again. Huntsman roped a one-out double to left, Johnson took a pitch to the back and Duryea walked to load the bases. Freshman
Joe Gross then lined his second base hit of the day into left field, scoring Huntsman.
The rally, though, would be short-lived, as the Cardinal reliever induced a shallow fly out to left field and struck out the final batter of the game.
GAME VITALS
Game 1 Score: Houghton – 3 | St. John Fisher – 0
Game 2 Score: Houghton – 5 | St. John Fisher – 10
Records: Houghton: 16-15 (9-9 Empire 8) | St. John Fisher: 25-10 (13-4 Empire 8)
Venue: Dugan Yard, St. John Fisher College | Attendance:
KEY STATS:
>> With his three hits today, Johnson now has 159 career base hits, raising his four-year batting average to .334. This season he leads the team with a .388 average.
>> Senior
Ethan Duryea collected a hit in each game today. He now has seven hits—including four doubles—in his last four games.
>> Cavalieri lowered his season ERA to 3.00 and has now struck out 91 batters in 54 innings (15.17 per nine innings). He now has 202 career strikeouts--five behind all-time leader Seth Cornell—177.2 innings.
>> Huntsman finished 4-for-8 with a double and a homerun, while
Jeremy Newswanger,
Joe Gross and
Whitney Cook each collected two hits apiece on the day.
>> Houghton will finish above .500 for the first time since restarting the program in 2012. They will also earn their first Empire 8 tournament bid (all Empire 8 teams participated in the tournament in 2015).
COACH'S CORNER:
"After yesterday, it would have been easy for our guys to go back into their shell and hand these games to Fisher today. I'm incredibly proud that we did not do that.
"Victor [Cavalieri] has been outstanding all year long, and today was no different. He knows how to compete and shut down an offense that is stacked from top-to-bottom.
"We jumped on a really good pitcher early in that game, which is something we've struggled to do this year. That made a huge difference.
"We also made some great defensive plays, including perhaps the best bunt-defensive play I've ever seen by Vic.
"In game two, Fisher put together an impressive two-out rally in the fifth. It would have been easy for us to fold at that point, but we battled throughout the remainder of the game. That one inning killed us, but it didn't define us.
"We're looking forward to the tournament. Our seniors have worked so hard for the past three-to-four years. They deserve this. We're looking forward to making some noise." –Coach
Brian Reitnour