Baseball | 5/28/2021 9:46:00 PM
MARIETTA, Ohio – Junior slugger Adam Zebrowski hit two home runs on Friday night as the nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College baseball team had its season come to a close after falling to No. 7 Rowan University, 6-3, on the second day of the NCAA Division III Regional at Don and Sue Schaly Field at Marietta College. With the defeat, Fisher, which entered the week ranked 16th in the latest D3baseball.com national poll, wrapped up the 2021 season at 31-7 while the Profs, who were the top seed in the regional, advanced with a 27-4 overall mark.
After a scoreless first inning of play, Fisher got on the board in the bottom of the second when Zebrowski tattooed a ball over the left field fence to stake the Cardinals to a 1-0 lead. The Albany native doubled Fisher's advantage in the bottom of the fourth after connecting with a 0-1 offering and sending it down the left field line for his Division III leading 20th home run of the year.
Trailing by two runs in the top of the sixth, Rowan strung together three straight base knocks to load the bases with no outs before a sacrifice fly cut the Fisher lead to one, 2-1. With runners at the corners and one down, Rowan looked to catch the Cardinals off guard after dropping down a squeeze, but RJ Kuruts fielded the ball and scooped it to Zebrowski who applied the tag to preserve the one-run cushion.
The lead remained in Fisher's hands until the top of the seventh when Rowan plated three runs on three hits and forged ahead, 4-2. Facing a deficit, Fisher got one back in the bottom of the inning when James Ward, Jr. singled and advanced all the way to third following an error by the Profs' left fielder. With a runner 90 feet away, Patrick Kravitz worked an RBI-single up the gut to pull Fisher to within one, 4-3.
Both teams continued to battle in the eighth, but neither was able to break through until the top of the ninth as Rowan loaded the bags and tacked on two big insurance runs with a single through the right side to open up a 6-3 lead.
Down by three with only three outs to work with, Murphy worked a two-out walk, but the Profs buckled down and induced a groundout to second to close out the game.
Zebrowski was 2-for-3 at the plate and was intentionally walked in the eighth inning. Ward, Jr. had two hits on the night and scored a run while Justin Graham had one base knock in four plate appearances. Graham closed out his career as Fisher's all-time leader in both hits with 267 and runs scored with 201. Michael Beimel was 1-for-4 with a double while James Murphy and Kravitz rounded out the hitting for Fisher with one apiece.
Kuruts held the Profs scoreless through the first five innings of play and went eight innings overall. The Forest City, Pa. native allowed six runs (three earned) on 12 hits and finished with two strikeouts. Kuruts established a new single-season record for Ks this season with 100 to his credit. Alec Teska pitched the ninth and surrendered one hit in all.
Fisher had another successful year after winning its third overall Empire 8 Championship and reaching the national tournament for the sixth time in program history. The Cardinals' offense played at a historic clip as it ranked second among all Division III teams with a .371 batting average, a .484 on-base percentage, a .596 slugging percentage and in runs scored per game at 12.6 on average. The Cardinals entered NCAA play ranked fifth in the country in home runs per game at 1.36 and hit 53 home runs in 38 games, which is 11th in Division III.