Top-Seeds SUNY Brockport and Russell Sage Move into Winners Bracket After Day One Wins at 2025 Empire 8 Baseball Tournament

Baseball | 5/8/2025 9:39:09 PM

No. 1 seed SUNY Brockport (34-3-2) and No. 2 seed Russell Sage College (26-13) won their opening games of the double elimination 2025 Empire 8 Baseball Tournament from Clark V. Whitted Park on the campus of Brockport on Thursday, May 8. Russell Sage defeated No. 3 St. John Fisher University (21-18-1), 6-5, while Brockport dispatched No. 5 Houghton University (23-20), 11-1 in the nightcap.
 
Houghton began the day by defeating No. 4 seed Utica University, 23-9 in a wild card game to get into the double elimination portion of the tournament. Utica finished the season with an 18-16-1 record.

St. John Fisher and Houghton will meet at 8:30 a.m. Friday in game three, which will also serve as an elimination game. SUNY Brockport and Russell Sage will meet in the winner's bracket game four at 12 p.m. on Friday. The winner of that game will advance to the championship round, which is scheduled to be played on Saturday, May 10. The winning team of game three and losing team from game four will meet in a second elimination game 5 at 3:30 p.m. Friday

The complete tournament schedule is below, as all double elimination games will be played at Brockport’s Clark V. Whitted Park.

WILDCARD GAME – NO. 5 HOUGHTON 23, NO. 4 UTICA 9
Houghton scored seven runs in the fourth inning and added seven more runs in the eighth, while slamming 20 hits in a 23-9 win over Utica in the Empire 8 wildcard round.
 
Christian Tortorici went 3-for-6 with two doubles. two runs scored and three RBI to lead the Highlanders, while Vincent Lucyszyn and Jeremiah Chow scored four runs apiece. Nate Tyler earned the win in relief, throwing three hitless innings, scattering just one walk, while striking out eight batters.
 
Ty Montrose had two hits to lead Utica, while Justin Mazovec had two hits and two RBI.
 
GAME 1 - NO. 2 RUSSELL SAGE 6, NO. 3 ST. JOHN FISHER 5
Senior infielder Jeff Stearns (Vergennes, VT/Vergennes Union) delivered a walk-off single with the bases loaded to put Russell Sage College past St. John Fisher 6-5. Russell Sage erased deficits of 4-0 and 5-1 deficit to earn the win.
Both teams tossed their aces this afternoon. Fisher started junior Ethan Fulton, who opened the postseason fourth in the E8 in ERA and fifth in strikeouts. The Gators countered with lefty Joe DeGroot (Clay, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse).  The graduate student ranked third in innings pitched and fifth in ERA during the regular season.
Both teams' offenses, which were in the top-three in the Conference for multiple statistical categories and combined for 25 hits this afternoon, had both coaches going to their bullpens a bit earlier than desired.
The Cardinals, the three seed, led 4-0 after three innings to force DeGroot out of the game, while the Gators had Fisher into its pen in the fifth.
Senior reliever Jaylen Cuevas (Bronx, NY/Fordham Prep), who headed into the postseason atop the E8 with three saves, allowed just five hits and one earned run across the final six innings to earn the win.
Sage got within one with a three-run fourth. Designated hitter James Lubanski (Port Washington, NY/Paul D. Schreiber) keyed the rally with a two-run double.  The graduate student, the program's career leader in RBI, hits, and doubles, went 4-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored.
After getting four innings of relief from Patrick McGuire (Ballston Lake, NY/Shenendehowa), the Cardinals went to freshman Matt Culjak with the goal of getting the neutral site contest to extra innings.
Senior outfielder Jorge Oropeza (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena High School) led off with a single, part of a 2-for-4 performance. With two outs, senior pitcher/outfielder Evan Grimes (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa/SUNY Adirondack) lasered one through the third base line to put runners on the corners. Fisher decided to intentionally walk Lubanski  in favor of Stearns, who was 0-for-5 with a run scored at the time. Stearns, second in the E8 in slugging at .647 and fourth in both homers and OPS, launched a Culjak offering onto the warning track in right for the victory.
Fisher received multiple hits from three different players in the loss. Freshman outfielder Austin Droge went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored to pace the Cardinals.

GAME 2 - NO. 1 SUNY BROCKPORT 11, NO. 5 HOUGHTON 1
Top-seed SUNY Brockport, ranked No. 12 in the D3baseball.com national poll and No. 15 in the NCAA Baseball National Power Index, scored four times in the first inning and four more times in the third to jump out to a big lead, eventually defeating Houghton, 11-1.
 
Ryan Peters was brilliant on the mound for the Golden Eagles, allowing just one hit and an unearned run, walking three batters and striking out 12 over eight innings of work to improve to 6-1 on the season.
 
Kyle Blake was 2-for-3 with two walks, three runs scored and a run batted in. Frank Vanzillotta was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while Nick Mahar finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI.
 
Mason Sutherland was 1-for-2 with a walk and run scored for Houghton.
 
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 and YouTube
 
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