The No. 2 St. John Fisher Cardinals couldn’t beat an early deficit,
falling to No. 1 SUNY Cortland 6-1 in the NCAA New York Regionals in Auburn, N.Y.
Fisher falls to 30-13 on the season, while Cortland improves to 35-8-1. The Cardinals will take on the winner of the Oneonta/Castleton St. game tomorrow at 1 p.m. in an elimination game.
Cortland took the lead for good in the first inning. Andersen Gardner reached second on a throwing error by shortstop
Kevin Wing with two outs and scored on a single by Steve Nickel in the following at bat.
With two outs in the fourth,
Ben Bostick singled to center field and was advanced by a Job Gibbs single in the same spot, but the Cardinals left two on base after
Leo Fusilli fouled out on the right side. The Red Dragons extended the lead to two runs on their ensuing turn when Jason Simone singled to left center to score Gardner, who reached on a single through the left side.
Fisher couldn’t get much going over the next two innings, leaving it to Cortland to push its lead to three in the sixth when Simone tripled to center field to score Gardner, who reached on an error.
Cortland tallied three hits and doubled its lead in the seventh, handing the Cardinals a 6-0 deficit.
Fisher got on the board in the ninth, when Bostick, who singled up the middle, was scored by Gibbs’ single up the middle. The Cardinals would go on to load the bases, but with two outs, they could not capitalize.
Andrew Van Slyke took the loss for Fisher, pitching 6.2 innings and allowing only one earned run while striking out two.
Aaron Benton came in for 0.1 innings, while
Tim Johnson closed out the game, pitching one inning and striking out one Red Dragon.
Bostick went 2-for-4 from the plate with one run, while Gibbs also went 2-for-4 with Fisher's lone RBI.