Despite trailing for most of the game, the St. John Fisher College softball team battled back to tie Buffalo State College in the fifth,
before the Bengals eliminated Fisher with a two-run homer in the eighth inning to take a 6-4 win.
Fisher ends the season with a 32-12 overall record, and advanced to the NCAA Championship tournament for the second straight year after winning its second Empire 8 Championship.
Fisher nearly stole the comeback win in its final at-bat. After a fly ball from Samantha Vara scored pinch-runner Jenn Vanek from third to even the score at 4-4, freshman shortstop Kelly Jones came though with a clutch triple that had a chance to give Fisher the win. The Bengals, however, fired the relay from center to the plate, and got the out at home to prevent the would-be game-winning run from scoring.
Buffalo State took the momentum into its half of the eighth and went up 6-4 on Kyrstin Lekki’s two-run shot that proved too much for Fisher to overcome. The Cardinals got the tying run to the batter’s box in the bottom of the inning, but the Bengals’ leaned on their defense again and got a timely double play to clear the base paths and escape with a win.
The Cardinals initially trailed 4-0 after the fourth inning, but got three runs back in the bottom of the fifth. After consecutive walks by Kelly Hausler and Katelyn Stubbendeck to lead off the inning, Megan Zoerb advanced the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. RBI singles from Vara and Lauren O’Brien around a sacrifice fly from Jones got the Cardinals back into the game and made it 4-3 after five.
Vara (two RBI, one run) and O’Brien (one RBI) keyed the offense with two hits apiece. Amanda Shevchuk (17-8) suffered the loss in her final game.