Baseball | 5/16/2024 6:03:00 PM
PITTSFORD, NY – The St. John Fisher University baseball team begins their NCAA Division III Baseball Championship tournament on Friday, May 17, when they travel to Pennsylvania to begin regional play against the host, No. 13 nationally-ranked Misericordia. Gametime for game one is 10:00 a.m.
Here's what you need to know:
How They Got Here
Fisher enters the tournament with a 26-17 record. Although they placed second in the Empire 8 during the regular season, they were able to sweep the conference tournament, winning all three games including the conference-winner against third-seeded Utica. Their Empire 8 titles ensured an automatic berth into the tournament.
Tournament Format
The NCAA tournament's regional round is a double-elimination format: the winners of the opening games will play each other, as will the losers of the opening games. The process continues until only one team remains without two losses. This is the same format used in the Empire 8 tournament.
The teams that advance out of regionals go into super-regionals, where they'll play a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to the Division III College World Series. Like the opening round and super-regionals, the CWS is a double-elimination format followed by a best-of-three championship series among the last two teams standing.
NCAA History
This is Fisher's ninth time in the NCAA Tournament, including visits the last three seasons. Their best showing was in 2016, when the team reached the Division III College World Series. Last season, the Cardinals made it to the Baltimore Regional Championship before falling to Johns Hopkins, 8-2.
Know Your Foe
Operating from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, the Misericordia University Cougars enter the tournament as the 13th ranked team in the country with a record of 33-9. The squad won the MAC Freedom Conference to gain an automatic bid into the tournament.
The Cougars are led by junior Connor Maryniak, who finished best on the team in OPS (1.156), home runs (12), and RBI (62). Joe Comins and Garrett McIlhenney, meanwhile, both hit over .400. Maryniak is also dangerous on the mound, going 9-2 with a 1.92 ERA. The other Misericordia ace, Joe Valenti, finished the season 8-2 with a 2.06 ERA.
The Cardinals are 0-1 all-time against Misericordia, falling to them 3-2 in a game in March of 2017.
Fun fact: Misericordia was founded in the 1920s by the Religious Sisters of Mercy, and its name means "Mercy" in Latin.
Other Foes To Know
The Middlebury University Panthers enter the tournament 30-11 coming off a NESCAC conference championship that earned them an automatic bid. Offensively, they are led by senior Mitchell Schroeder, a Johns Hopkins transfer who is hitting .371 this season with a 1.107 OPS. On the mound, Justin Lessing is 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA. Fisher and Middlebury have never faced each other on the baseball diamond. Fun fact: Alexander Twilight, the first African American to earn a bachelor's degree from a four-year school, did so at Middlebury in 1823.
The Keystone College Giants are 33-11 this season and clinched a spot in the NCAAs by winning the United East Conference Championship. An offense-happy team with eight players with an OPS of 1.000 or higher, the Giants put up 38 runs against Clarks Summit during a game in March. On the mound, Jordan Art leads their starting staff with a 3.74 ERA. The Cardinals are 2-6 all-time against Keystone, most recently falling to the Giants in 2019. Fun fact: Keystone College started its existence as a high school named Keystone Academy, the high school alma mater of Baseball Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson. Keystone's team name, the Giants, is in tribute to Mathewson's MLB team.
The Norsen-Murphy Combo
The two leading position players for the Cardinals this season were often the corner infielders: senior third baseman James Murphy and graduate student first baseman Brian Norsen.
Murphy became the first Cardinal to ever win the Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Year Award, an honor that began in 2023. During the regular season, the Niskayuna native helped turn 12 double plays from third base while leading the conference with 107 assists. His .965 fielding percentage was the 19th best among all players in the conference despite playing the difficult position of third base. At the plate, Murphy earned his third First Team honor (after 2023 and 2021) by finishing among the league leaders in several offensive categories. He led the conference in runs scored (60), was second in hits (66), steals (33), doubles (13, tied with Sage's James Lubanski), and triples (5), and placed third in batting average (.393) and RBI (49). During the Empire 8 tournament, Murphy had a historic moment, hitting a walk-off home run against Houghton to secure the Cardinals a spot in the Empire 8 Championship game.
Graduate first baseman Brian Norsen concluded his St. John Fisher career with his fourth All-Conference honor. This regular season, the Hamburg native broke the program's all-time career home run record, passing Scott Eisenmenger when he hit his 42nd career long-ball. In seasonal rankings, Norsen led the league in hits (68) and doubles (16) while finishing second in the conference in batting average (.398), slugging percentage (.690), runs scored (59), RBI (51), walks (31) and tied for home runs (10). Norsen also played a role in 26 double plays and finished with a .986 fielding percentage.
Fulton on the Mound
Sophomore Ethan Fulton was actually a two-way player this season, but he made his biggest impact on the mound. He led the conference this regular season with a 2.83 ERA and only 23 runs allowed, while finishing second in opposing batting average (.222), strikeouts (64) and wins (5, tied with two others). In addition, the Trumansburg native had 43 at-bats as an outfielder during the regular season, getting 11 hits including a home run. In the Empire 8 tournament, he doubled at the plate while earning a win against Utica.
What Comes Next
If Fisher gets through regionals, they'd face the winner of the Christopher Newport Regional in a super-regional best-of-three series for a spot in the College World Series. The teams in that regional are the hosts, Scranton, Immaculata, and NC Wesleyan.
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
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