UTICA, NY - The Utica University baseball team is set to make its fifth consecutive appearance in the Empire 8 Tournament. The third-seeded Pioneers are set to open the double elimination tournament against the second-seeded St. John Fisher Cardinals at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 9. All games will be played at Central Park in Schenectady, NY hosted by the top-seeded Russell Sage College Gators. 
 
Follow Along: Those unable to attend can keep up with live stats through https://www.sagegators.com/sports/bsb/2023-24/boxscores/20240511_w7jv.xml for all tournament games. Check back on the Utica baseball page for live video links once made available. 
 
Getting In: Those attending tournament games will be charged $6 for adults, $4 for students and seniors with ID, while children under 12-years-old are free. 
 
Last Time Out: Utica capped off its regular season by completing the series sweep of the Keuka College Wolves on Sunday, May 5. The Pioneers defeated the Wolves, 11-8, from the Loop Road Athletic Complex at Hamilton College. The pitching staff combined to surrender just three earned runs of Keuka's eight total. Nicholas Greene (Rome, NY/Central Valley Academy) earned his first win of the year after one inning on the bump giving up one run on one hit and one hit batter. Ben Freeman (Liverpool, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) picked up the save after throwing the 8th and 9th innings allowing an unearned run on two walks and a hit batter with two strikeouts. Kody Czternastek (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) tossed a scoreless 6th while Aidan McCue (Averill Park, NY/Averill Park) gave up just one unearned run over two frames. Frederick Callo Jr. (Milton, NY/Marlboro) made the start and went three deep allowing five runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks while striking out five. Jack Scanlon (Rochester, NY/Aquinas Institute) led the team at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a walk, an RBI and a run scored. Jason Story (Hilton, NY/Hilton) put together a multi-hit game as well, going 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, three RBIs and a run scored. Josh Duval (Utica, NY/Proctor) and Lance Berger (Lindenhurst, NY/Saint Anthony's) each had one double in the win. The Wolves made a splash over the first 3.5 innings as they led 5-1 going into Utica's half of the fourth. The lone Pioneer run over that time came on a Scanlon RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd. After the sides traded runs in the bottom of the 4th and top of the 5th to make it 6-2, Utica started to chip away at its deficit in the home half of the 5th. Story began the run of five unanswered runs with an RBI double before Derek Holmes (Blossvale, NY/Camden) brought him in on a single later in the inning. Following Holmes' RBI base-hit, pinch-runner Tanner Warren (Mohawk, NY/Central Valley Academy) came in from third on a wild pitch to make it a 6-5 game. Then in the bottom of the 6th, the Pioneers climbed out front thanks to a two-RBI single off the bat of Story. Keuka would tie the game in the top of the 7th to bring Utica to the plate in the bottom half with the game even at 7-7. The game wouldn't stay tied long though as a string of Keuka errors helped put the Pioneers back in the lead. An E6 with two outs scored Holmes from second base to give Utica the one run needed before a bases-loaded pitch clock error with three balls put Micah Fiorello (Brooktondale, NY/Ithaca) on first and advanced the rest of the runners. A wild pitch would grant Utica its 10th run of the game to go into the top of the 8th up by three runs. Freeman retired the Wolves side in order in the top of the 8th and the Pioneer bats gave him an insurance run in the bottom to enter the 9th with an 11-7 lead. Keuka made things interesting early and had the bases loaded with one out. A fly out to Story in right field put Utica one out away from ending the game. The next batter for Keuka walked in a run, sending the go-ahead run to the plate. However, Freeman induced a game-ending ground out to Scanlon at shortstop on a 3-2 count to close out the regular season with a win and series sweep.
 
Tournament History: Utica is set to make its fifth straight postseason trip as well its seventh all-time since tournament play began in 2015. The Pioneers have found success over the past three seasons as the team reached the league title in 2021 and 2022 and was one win away from doing so again last year. The team is 6-13 all-time in postseason play with the record stemming from both double elimination and best 2-out-of-3 play. Against this year's opposition, Utica is 1-7 all-time in the postseason against Fisher, 2-2 against top-seeded Sage, and 3-2 against fourth-seeded Houghton. Of the four teams in this year's tournament, Fisher is the only team to have won the league title, doing so in 2010 and 2011 as well as in each of the last three seasons. 
 
Postseason Schedule: The 2024 Empire 8 Conference Baseball Tournament will feature the conference's top four teams from regular season play. The double elimination tournament will begin on Thursday, May 9 at Central Park in Schenectady, NY (Home Field of Union College) hosted by top-seeded Sage. 
 
Final 2024 Empire 8 Baseball Championship Seeds
No. 1 – Russell Sage College
No. 2 – St. John Fisher University
No. 3 – Utica University 
No. 4 – Houghton University
  
2024 Empire 8 Baseball Championship Schedule
(All games to be hosted by Russell Sage and played at Central Park in Schenectady)

Thursday, May 9
Game 1 – No. 4 Houghton at No. 1 Russell Sage – 11 a.m.
Game 2 – No. 3 Utica vs. No. 2 St. John Fisher – 2:30 p.m.

Friday, May 10
Game 3 – Losing Team of Game 1 vs. Losing Team of Game 2 – 11 a.m. (elimination game)
Game 4 – Winning Team of Game 1 vs. Winning Team of Game 2 – 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 – Winning Team of Game 3 vs. Losing Team of Game 4 – 6 p.m. (elimination game)
 
Saturday, May 11
Game 6 – Winning Team of Game 4 vs. Winning Team of Game 5 – 1 p.m.
Game 7 – Winning Team of Game 6 vs. Losing Team of Game 6 (If Necessary) – 4:30 p.m. 
 
How We Enter: Utica enters the postseason 17-23 overall and 11-7 in league play. With some pop in their bats as of late, the Pioneers rank third in the league with a .296 batting average, a .408 on-base percentage, a .429 slugging percentage and 318 runs scored. Over 307.2 innings, the pitching staff posted the sixth-ranked ERA in the league at 8.13 as well as the fourth-ranked opponent batting average at .300. The unit also totaled the second-most strikeouts in the conference with 257 (80 looking). In the field, Utica turned in the second-ranked unit in the league with a .949 fielding percentage (68 errors over 1,325 chances). 
 
Storybook Season: Jason Story (Hilton, NY/Hilton) tied a 39-year-old program record this past weekend with his 10th home run of the season, making him one of two players in program history to reach double-digit home runs in a season. He is also now tied for fifth all-time in program history with 13 in his career. The senior leads the team with 46 hits this year while his .374 batting average is sixth in the Empire 8. Story's 1.183 OPS and .699 slugging percentage are well within the top-five in the E8 while his 40 runs scored and 34 RBIs are top-10 marks. 
 
Hot Lumber: Josh Duval (Utica, NY/Proctor) and Andrew Salbinski (Essex, CT/Valley Regional) have caught fire at the right time. Duval leads the team and ranks third in the Empire 8 with a .393 batting average, much of this is thanks to the second half of his season. Dating back to April 7, the junior transfer has had at least one hit in 17 of 20 games (28-for-68) and since April 28 he has hit safely in seven of eight games (14-for-23). His .493 on-base percentage has helped lead to 29 runs scored over 35 games played while he has also driven in 26 this year. Salbinski's batting average has risen to .345 thanks to his latest stretch of hitting. Since April 21, Salbinski is 19-for-41) with six multi-hit games. Over that time, he has six extra-base hits as well as 15 runs driven in. The sophomore now leads the team with 36 RBIs which ranks him fifth in the Empire 8. 
 
A Look at the Field: Sage, in its third year of existence as a program, captured the top-seed with a 16-2 mark in league play. It's only two league losses have come against Utica and Fisher. The Gators tied Fisher for the league lead with a .305 batting average led by the E8's top-two hitters in Brendan Espinal (.453/.551/.688) and Jeff Stearnes (.413/.512/.725, 10 HR). Their 349 runs scored also topped the conference. The pitching staff posted the second-lowest ERA in the league as well with a 6.86 along with the third-lowest opponent batting average at .298. The trio of Joe DeGroot (6-0, 4.53 ERA), Matthew Denatale (5-4, 4.84 ERA) and Liam Doyle (4-3, 5.05 ERA) have been featured in the top half of the rotation. The three-time defending champion Cardinals enter as the second-seed and will not host the tournament for the first time since 2021. The team slashed .305/.430/.438 this year led by James Murphy (.391/.490/.583, 19 XBH, 38 RBIs) and Brian Norsen (.373/.456/.627, 8 HR, 47 RBIs). The pitching staff led by the league's top-two starters in Ethan Fulton (4-1, 2.81 ERA) and Patrick McGuire (4-2, 3.05 ERA) led the conference with a 5.16 ERA. Fisher also topped the league with a .969 fielding percentage. Fourth-seeded Houghton comes into the postseason 15-20 overall and 9-9 in league play. The offense ranked fourth in the E8 with a .285 batting average and features Chris Vancheri (.333/.413/.491) and Jeremy Wilcox (.327/.415/.398). This pitching staff totaled the league's third-lowest ERA at 7.18 with much help from the conference's third-ranked pitcher in Ethan Cetton (4-4, 3.20 ERA). Kip Bertram (3-5, 7.21 ERA) and Aiden Talcott (3-5, 7.40 ERA) each have hurled over 40 innings for the Highlanders.   

Up Next: The winner of the Empire 8 Tournament will receive an automatic bid into the 2024 NCAA Division III Tournament. The selection show will be aired at noon on Monday, May 13 on NCAA.com.