Pittsford, NY – The fourth-seeded Utica College baseball team rallied from an early 5-0 deficit but could not complete the comeback as the Pioneers lost 5-4 against No. 3 Ithaca College on Friday in the Empire 8 Conference Tournament at St. John Fisher College.  The Pioneers (9-24-1) will now square off in a rematch of the tournament's opening game when they take on top-seeded St. John Fisher Saturday at 12 p.m. in an elimination game. 

Ithaca (26-14) advanced to the finals with a game in hand and will square off against the Utica/Fisher winner on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Utica senior pitcher Joshua Webb (Verona, NY/VVS) pitched a complete game and has now pitched in 11 straight innings for the Pioneers after coming on in a rare relief appearance to earn the game one save against St. John Fisher on Friday. Webb held the Bombers scoreless in seven of eight innings while striking out three. Webb has held opponents scoreless in 10-of-11 innings in two tournament games.  His only hiccup came in the bottom of the second inning when the Bombers pushed five runs across the plate to take an early 5-0 advantage.

The Pioneers punched back with a three run third inning to make it a 5-3 ball game.  Utica's Jake Ryan (Kingston, NY/Kingston) drilled a two-RBI double down the right field line to score Adam Pexton (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) and freshman catcher Matthew Fitzgerald (Clinton, NY/Notre Dame).  Junior JT Ross (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills) then added a RBI after a fielding error, scoring Jake Ryan (Kingston, NY/Kingston) to make the score 5-3.

UC added its fourth and final run of the contest after Fitzgerald walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-4, but that was as close as the Pioneers would get.

Utica could only manage two base runners in its final three innings as the Pioneers record against Ithaca evened out at 2-2 on the year. 

Ryan finished the day with a 1-for-5 effort and one run scored, while JT Ross (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills) added a 1-for-4 effort and one RBI.  Vincent Burillo (Montgomery, NY/Valley Central ) totaled one hit on the day and Matthew DeMartino (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside) added one hit and one run scored. Fitzgerald filled up the stat sheet once again with one hit, one run scored, one RBI and one walk. 

Ithaca's Ryan Contegni came on in relief and shut down the Pioneers to earn the save.  He pitched 3.1 innings and allowed just one hit while striking out three. Josh Savacool went 2-for-5 with two RBIs for the Bombers, while Zach Cole went 4-for-4 on the day.