Baseball | 5/20/2021 3:00:37 PM
Regular Season Champion St. John Fisher College will host No. 3 seed Utica College in a best-of-three championship round, which will take place starting with a doubleheader at noon on Friday, May 21 at Dugan Yard. If necessary, game three will be at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 22. The Empire 8 Champion earns an automatic berth into the 2021 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.
Top-seed St. John Fisher enters the 2021 Championship series with a 29-5 overall record and is ranked 23rd the current NCBWA Division III national poll. The Cardinals finished 17-1 to capture the 2021 Empire 8 regular season title and are attempting to win their third Empire 8 Tournament Championship. The Cardinals swept No. 4 seed Keuka College by scores of 10-1 and 20-8 on May 15 in the semifinal round to advance.
Eight players are batting at least .300 in 2021 for the Cardinals, who had 11 All-Empire 8 first team selections. Junior Adam Zebrowski, the Empire 8 Player of the Year is enjoying an incredible season, batting .520 and is second in all of Division III with 17 home runs to go along with 59 RBI. He has 128 total bases, a .618 on-base percentage and is slugging 1.008 for an OPS of 1.626. Noah Campanelli is batting .396 with team-best totals of 59 runs scored and 18 doubles to go along with three homers and 24 RBI. Justin Graham, St. John Fisher’s all-time career leader in hits, has 19 extra-base hits and 41 RBI, while Brian Norsen and 2021 Empire 8 Rookie of the Year James Ward, Jr., have hit five home runs apiece. The Cardinals have hit a league-high 43 home runs as a team this season, are hitting .366 as a team and are averaging 11.94 runs per game.
RJ Kuruts, the 2021 Empire 8 Pitcher of the Year and All-Empire 8 first team selection Anthony Brophy have excelled the mound this season. Kuruts is 10-1 overall with a 3.21 earned run average and 90 strikeouts in 61.2 innings, while Brophy is 7-0 with a 1.67 ERA and 1.07 WHIP to go along with 61 strikeouts in 54 innings. Kuruts is tied for the Division III national lead in wins and is sixth in strikeouts. Overall, the Cardinals have recorded six shutouts.
Utica enters the championship series with a 18-15 overall mark in 2021 after defeating No. 3 Houghton in three games in the semifinal series last weekend. The Pioneers lost game one, 8-7 before winning game two, 18-5 and rallying to take game three, 8-7. The Pioneers have advanced to the Empire 8 Championship series for the first time in program history, looking for their first league crown.
Joe Battista leads the Pioneers with a .446 batting average, 1.163 OPS, 50 hits, 36 runs scored, 28 walks and 34 RBI. John Son has team-best totals of four home runs, 36 RBI, 76 total bases and a .661 slugging percentage, while also batting .417 to go along with 19 extra base hits. Michael Muentener is hitting .429 with a 1.124 OPS. Jason Story is the reigning Empire 8 Rookie of the Week. Seven Pioneers starters are batting at least .300 in 2021 and the team is hitting .330 overall, averaging 8.73 runs scored per game. Utica has hit 14 home runs as a team this season and drawn 194 walks.
On the mound, graduate student Griffin Baur is 5-1 for Utica in nine starts with a 3.42 earned run average and 68 strikeouts in 47.1 innings. He also has one save, closing out Houghton in the decisive game three last weekend. Opposing batters are hitting just .231 off of him this season. James Roeschlaub has 53 strikeouts in just 35.1 innings.
The Cardinals and Pioneers have meet three previous times in 2021. On April 27, Baur and Daniel Parslow combined on a five-hitter as Utica handed the Cardinals their only loss in league play, 8-2. The Cardinals swept a doubleheader against Utica on May 1 by scores of 16-1 and 9-4. James Murphy drove in six runs in the doubleheader for St. John Fisher.
2021 Empire 8 Baseball Championship Schedule
Empire 8 First Round – Saturday, May 11
#4 Keuka College defeats #5 Elmira College, 15-12
Empire 8 Semifinal Round (Best-of-3, Doubleheader Friday, May 14, If Necessary, Deciding Game Saturday, May 15
Semifinal Series 1 - #4 Keuka College at #1 St. John Fisher College
Game 1 - #1 St. John Fisher College 10, #4 Keuka College 1
Game 2 - #1 St. John Fisher 20, #4 Keuka College 8
(St. John Fisher wins the series, 2-0)
Semifinal Series 2 - #3 Utica College at #2 Houghton College
Game 1 - #2 Houghton College 8, #3 Utica College 7
Game 2 - #3 Utica College 18, #2 Houghton College 5
Game 3 - #3 Utica College 8, #2 Houghton College 7
(Utica wins the series, 2-1)
Empire 8 Championship Round (Best-of-3, Doubleheader Friday, May 21, If Necessary, Deciding Game Saturday, May 22
Game 1 - #3 Utica College at #1 St. John Fisher College – 12 p.m. Friday
Game 2 - #3 Utica College at #1 St. Joh Fisher - 3 p.m. Friday
Game 3 - #3 Utica College at #1 St. John Fisher - 1 p.m. Saturday (if necessary)
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
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