St. John Fisher scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat UMass-Boston, 6-5, and advance to the championship game of the NCAA D-III Baseball Mid-Atlantic Regional, Saturday evening at PNC Field in Moosic, PA
UMass-Boston will play the Kean/Penn State-Berks survivor, Saturday at noon with the winner advancing to face Fisher for the title.
Evan Ryan singled through the left side to drive in two runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the Cardinals ahead, 6-5.
Mike Roman, Nate Roethel, Joe Simmons and Malcolm Kelsey all had two hits for Fisher.Â
D.J. Mendenhall worked .2 innings to pick up the win while Loukas Brigham got the last three outs to earn his 10th save.
Anthony Searles had two hits and two RBI for UMass-Boston and Dan Mantoni and Charlie Huegi had two hits each.
Trailing 2-1, the Beacons scored four runs in the top of the eighth to go in front. Mantoni lined a leadoff single to left and a hit by pitch and an error loaded the bases. Searles lined a single to left field that got by the outfield and rolled to the wall to clear the bases.
UMass-Boston added a run a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Huegi to lead 5-2 in the middle of the eighth.
Fisher responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the frame. Roman lined a double that landed on the left field line and came around to score on Scott Eisenmenger’s single to right. After Joe Simmons bounced a single that deflected off the pitcher’s glove and the second base bag, Malcolm Kelsey singled to right to load the bases.Â
Jack Vivinetto drew a bases-loaded walk after a 13-pitch at bat and Ryan followed with the game-winning hit.
UMass-Boston took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Dave Murphy drew a one-out walk, went to second on an errant pickoff attempt and scored on a line drive single to center by Searles.
Roman led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and raced to third on Roethel’s single to center. Simmons blooped a single to right to tie it, 1-1.
Roman and Roethel combined again to put Fisher ahead in the sixth. Roman led off the inning with a walk and moved up on a wild pitch and passed ball before coming home on Roethel’s roller through the right side.
