Alfred and St. John Fisher to Meet in Empire 8 Softball Championship Series for Third Straight Time

Softball | 5/6/2022 9:14:03 PM

Top seed Alfred University (24-13) and No. 2 seed St. John Fisher College (17-18) will meet in the championship round of the 2022 Empire 8 Softball Tournament after advancing on Friday, May 6. The Saxons defeated St. John Fisher, 5-1 in the opening game on Thursday before the Cardinals stayed alive after earning a 5-3 win over No. 4 seed Nazareth College (18-19) in the second elimination game. Nazareth defeated No. 3 seed Russell Sage to eliminate them earlier on Friday, 4-3.

St. John Fisher and Alfred will meet in the game six of the tournament at noon on Saturday, May 15. Alfred, who is unbeaten in the tournament, would claim the Empire 8 Championship with a win in game six. If St. John Fisher wins game six, that would set up a winner-take-all game seven, which would be played at 2:30 p.m. It is the third straight time that Alfred and St. John Fisher are meeting for the league title. St. John Fisher won in 2019, while Alfred earned the E8 title last season.

GAME 3 - NO. 1 ALFRED 5, NO. 2 ST. JOHN FISHER 1
The Saxons (24-13) got the game-winning run in the fourth inning when Alyssa Guitron (San Bernardino, CA/Cajon) doubled to right center field, bringing Mara Moore (Torrance, CA/West High) home from second base, making it a 2-1 game in favor of the hosts who were the designated visitors in the morning game.
 
Guitron had three of the Saxons' four RBI on the day as she drove home Moore in the top of the second inning, being the first run of the day on Friday. Fisher's lone run scored in the next inning as Maddie Donlin grounded out to Ashley Lugo (Hesperia, CA/Oak Hills) at short stop, giving Becca Irizarry time to run home, tying the game, 1-1 after three innings.
 
Moore's run in the top of the fourth would ultimately go on to be the game-winner.
 
Guitron grounded out to first base, but gave Meghan Neto (Miami, FL/Doral Academy Charter) the time needed to cross home in the top of the six, making it a 3-1 game. The Saxons tacked on two more insurance runs in the top of the seventh as Mya Wells (San Ramon, CA/California) belted a triple to right field, bringing home Tatiana Mejia (North Hills, CA/John F. Kennedy), making it 4-1. Neto then walked to get to first and stole second while Moore was at-bat. The attempted throw to second to get Neto out was the distraction needed as Wells was also going for the steal from third as she successfully scored the fifth run of the game.
 
Arden Hatch (Orangevale, CA/St. Francis) got the win in the circle as she struck out seven batters in five innings, giving up five hits and one earned run with no walks or batters hit. Megan Bennett (Athens, PA/Athens Area) earned another save as she pitched two innings, fanning three batters with no hits.
 
Allison O'Toole (Simi Valley, CA/Simi Valley), despite not registering any hits, laid down three precision sacrificed bunts on the day to advance Saxon batters. Guitron was the only batter in the game to have more than one hit as she was 2-for-3 with three RBI.

GAME 4- NO. 4 NAZARETH, NO. 3 RUSSELL SAGE 3
Against Russell Sage, Nazareth gained its first-ever post-season win as Justine Brooks and Bennett each had two hits and Daciw yielded just two hits over the last four innings to gain the win.

Nazareth scored twice in the first inning as Simmons doubled home Brooks, who singled to lead off the game. Simmons later scored on a single by Burdick.

After the Gators tied it with runs in the first and third innings, Nazareth went ahead to stay with two runs in the fourth. Katie Schmidt and Bennett opened the inning with singles. Schmidt eventually scored on an infield error and Bennett later scored on an infield grounder by Brooks.

Maddie Funk pitched the first three innings for Nazareth and gave up two hits and four walks before Daciw relieved in the fourth inning. She set the Gators down in order in both the fifth and sixth innings before running into some two-out trouble in the seventh. A single, an infield error and a walk plated one run and put the tying and winning runs on base, before Daciw recorded her fourth strikeout for the final out.  

GAME 5- NO. 2 ST. JOHN FISHER 5, NO. 4 NAZARETH 3
Following the first loss of the tournament, the Cardinals matched up against rival Nazareth in a win or go home game to determine who will face the Saxons in the Championship round. 
 
The Cardinals, who were the designated road team, lead off the top of the first with a Spitz RBI single up the middle, scoring Allie Klonowski for the game's first run.
 
Leading by one run, Cassidy Ormond took the mound for Fisher and worked her way in and out of trouble as the Golden Flyers found two hits but were unable to score a run.
 
From there, the Cardinals extended their lead as Donlin poked a single to right allowing Irizarry to sprint around third and score the team's second run. A 1-2-3 inning by Ormond brought the Cardinals back up to the plate with a chance to pour it on the top of the third. 
 
Looking for her pitch to drive, designated hitter Allison Rogowski led of the third inning with a bang, driving the ball deep over the left field wall for a homerun and giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
 
In the bottom of the inning, Nazareth would produce two runs on three hits and one error to put them right back in the game. 
 
The very next inning, Klonowski, who is one of the most dangerous hitters in the Empire 8 stepped up and delivered a two-RBI double to left field, scoring Donlin and Kelly Cournoyer to push the lead back to three runs.
 
As the game wore on, the Golden Flyers clawed their way back into the game with an RBI groundout in the sixth inning to close the gap to two runs. 
 
Entering the seventh inning with a two-run lead, Fisher's offense was unable to score a run, forcing Ormond to produce three outs to keep the season alive. The freshman found two quick outs from the Golden Flyers before a single brought the tying run to the plate. 
 
With a spot in the championship on the line, Ormond delivered the pitch and forced a fly out to center, giving the Cardinals a 5-3 win to keep the season alive.
 
Donlin delivered for the Cardinals with three hits, one run and one RBI, followed by Klonowski with two hits and two RBI. Ormond pitched seven innings and picked up the win (7-7) allowing three runs (one earned) with six strikeouts. 

This is the sixth appearance in the Empire 8 championship round for the Saxons, who also reached the finals in 2010, 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2021 campaigns. The Saxons need just one victory to earn the program's second straight Empire 8 Championship and third overall. The Cardinals of St. John Fisher are attempting to win their eighth Empire 8 title.