UTICA, NY - The Utica University baseball team and the St. John Fisher Cardinals will meet for the first time since the 2021 Empire 8 Championship Series this weekend. Utica will travel to Rochester, NY on Saturday for a doubleheader against the Cardinals before hosting Fisher for another twin bill on Monday, April 11. Game one on both days will begin at 1 p.m.
Follow Along: Fans can tune in to watch on Saturday through
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sjfc/ or follow with live stats through
https://athletics.sjfc.edu/sidearmstats/baseball/summary while on Monday, live stats and video will be provided through
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/utica/.
Last Time Out: The team's three-game winning streak was snapped on Wednesday evening as the SUNY Cobleskill Tigers defeated the Pioneers 10-6. Utica jumped on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd inning as
Nathan Yantz (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia) drove home
Michael Muentener (Fairview, NJ/Cliff Side Park) for an early 1-0 lead. Entering his second inning of work,
Kody Czternastek (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro ) surrendered a pair of runs in the Cobleskill half of the 3rd frame as the Tigers pulled ahead 2-1. Cobleskill used four-run 5th and 6th innings to extend its lead to 10-1 while in the 6th inning, Samuel Gutierrez of the Tigers hit a two-out grand slam down the right field line with each of the four runs being unearned. The Pioneers began to crawl back starting in the home half of the 6th with a sacrifice fly by Muentener to make it a 10-2 game. In the 8th, Utica scored three more runs as
Ryan Cardone (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) came across home on a wild pitch before Muentener drove home two on a single up the middle.
Joe Battista (South Glens Falls, NY/South Glens Falls) drilled a two-out home run to right field in the 9th inning, however, Cardone flew out during Utica's next at-bat to allow Cobleskill to hold on for the 10-6 win. Muentener finished a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate while driving in three runs and scoring once. Yantz and Battista each had two-hit, one RBI evenings as the three players were responsible for the team's seven hits and five of the six runs scored.
Joe Cool: From diving plays in center field to swinging one of the hottest bats on the team,
Joe Crossley (Marcy, NY/Whitesboro) has had himself a fantastic month of April thus far. Since the calendar turned, the junior is 10-for-18 at the plate, including a 5-for-5 performance against Sage, and has seen his batting average climb to .378, good enough for seventh in the E8. Crossley is now within the top-five in the conference with a 1.169 on-base plus slugging percentage, a .644 slugging percentage and a .525 on-base percentage.
Mighty Sham: Shamariah McCullough's (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth Regional) .417 batting average is tied for the second-best in the Empire 8 while he has recorded a hit in nine of his 11 starts; five of which being multi-hit games. In those five games the Pioneers are 4-1 and have outscored opponents by an average of six runs. McCullough, who is sixth on the team with 36 at-bats, is also slugging .500 while reaching base in 47.6 percent of plate appearances to go with 10 RBIs and runs scored.
Not Without a Fight: Michael Muentener (Fairview, NJ/Cliff Side Park) continues to be one of the toughest players in the nation to strike out. His strikeout-to-walk percentage of 21.2 ranks third in Division III as the senior has gone down on strikes four times while having worked 15 walks over 38 at-bats this season. Muentener's .509 on-base percentage is also third in the Empire 8, trailing only teammates
Joe Crossley (Marcy, NY/Whitesboro) (.525) and
Ryan Cardone (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) (.567).
On the Bump: Through 17 games, the Utica pitching staff owns the lowest ERA and opponent batting average in the conference at 5.20 and .271, has recorded the most strikeouts at 119, and has allowed an E8-low 131 hits.
Ryan Cardone (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) finds himself 32nd in Division III with a 1.29 ERA while leading the team with 24 strikeouts. Cardone is also 19th in the nation with a WHIP of .81. Starters
Jack Krug (Amsterdam, NY/Canajoharie),
Ben Hladun (Ballston Lake, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake ) and
James Roeschlaub (Auburn, NY/Auburn HS) all have an ERA of 5.1 or lower while Roeschlaub is second on the team and fourth in the E8 with 24 strikeouts to his name. Relief pitcher
Brendan May (McGraw, NY/McGraw) and
Brian Dinnen (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Walter Panas) also have sub-three ERA's.
About Fisher: The defending Empire 8 champion Cardinals (12-9, 4-0 Empire 8) will enter the series on a five-game winning streak which includes a 4-0 series sweep over Houghton College and a Wednesday evening home win over No. 16 Oswego State. The team is fourth in the E8 with a .269 team batting average while averaging nearly seven runs per contest. Noah Campanelli, who leads the conference with 83 at-bats, is ninth in the E8 batting .373 while he and three teammates are tied for second in the league with three home runs. On the mound, Fisher owns a staff ERA of 5.21 (second behind Utica's 5.20) while opponents have hit .275 off of the unit. Alec Teska (1-3, 4.99 ERA), Michael Poirier (0-0, 5.40 ERA), Connor McHugh (2-1, 2.89 ERA) and Tim Geissel (1-2, 6.85 ERA) are the team's top-four starting pitchers.
Up Next: Utica will be off until Friday, April 15 when the team travels to Keuka Park, NY for a doubleheader against Keuka College. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
