ITHACA, N.Y. (May 9, 2019) – The second-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team fell to #3 St. John Fisher College 8-4 in their first game of the day before defeating #4 Utica College 7-5 to advance to day two of the Empire 8 Conference baseball championship at Freeman Field on the campus of Ithaca College.
Anthony Brophy earned his sixth win on the mound for the Cardinals as he struck out eight batters in 5.2 innings of work. Senior
Ryan Larsen (4-6) was handed the loss despite his five strikeouts in 4.1 innings pitched.
The Ducks wasted no time scoring as senior
Matt Branco singled through the right side in the bottom of the first to send home freshman
Ryan Finegan for the first run of the day. Jake Hewitt responded in the following frame with a two-run homer to give Fisher a 3-1 advantage.
In the bottom of the third, graduate student
Tommy Baronner came up with a big base hit to left center that allowed senior
Matthew Pasko and sophomore
Nathan Zuckerman to score and tie the game.
The score remained tied until the top of the fifth when Thomas Pasquale gave the Cardinals a one-run lead with his RBI double to right center. Stephen Edgett extended the lead to two in the seventh inning with a solo home run over the left field fence.
Stevens worked to cut the lead back to one with an RBI single from senior
Carlos Leon in the eighth, but an RBI by Pasquale and a two-run single by Michael Beimel in the top of the ninth allowed Fisher to walk away with the win.
Senior
Danny Poidomani (3-3) earned the win against Utica after pitching six innings and recording seven strikeouts. Jonathan Hardy fell to 4-4 on the year after giving up three runs in his five innings pitched.
The Ducks jumped on the board right away with an RBI single from senior
Donny Gherardi in the top of the first. In his second at bat, the Oradell, New Jersey swung on the first pitch he saw for a double to bring in Branco in the third inning.
Gherardi brought in Stevens' third run of the game in his third trip to the plate with another RBI single in the top of the fifth. The Pioneers were able to put themselves on the board in the bottom of the frame when Maki Medici hit an infield single to bring in a run and Zach McGettigan recorded an RBI on a fielder's choice to cut the lead to one.
Baronner extended the lead in the sixth inning with a base hit through the right side to score junior
Patrick Rood. In the following inning, Gherardi registered his fourth hit in his fourth at bat with a home run to left field to give the Ducks a comfortable three-run advantage.
Matthew Fitzgerald brought Utica back within two runs when he scored on a wild pitch by sophomore
Roy Iversen in the bottom of the seventh. After a quick eighth inning, sophomore
J.C. Hanley hit his second home run of the season with a two-run blast to left field to make the score 7-3.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Ducks ready to move on to tomorrow's game, McGettigan hit a two-run homer to bring the Pioneers back within two. Christopher Ramsundar followed with what would have been a line drive into left field, but a diving play by Pasko gave Stevens the final out to end the game.
"It's a pretty simple mentality when you are in our situation at this time of year: survive and advance! Our team did a great job of bouncing back from a tough game one result to do exactly that in game two," expressed head coach
Kristaps Aldins. "We look forward to getting our rest and then getting an opportunity to extend our season tomorrow!"
Up Next
- The Ducks will play the loser of #1 Ithaca vs. #3 St. John Fisher tomorrow, May 10 at 3 P.M.
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