Auburn, NY – With 12 runs over the middle innings, St. John Fisher came back from an early deficit to defeat the Clarkson University Baseball team in the 2023 season-opener, 12-6, at neutral site Falcon Park in central New York.

The Golden Knights will now be off for two weekends as they will return to action against Hamilton College the first weekend of March.

Clarkson started off strong, loading the bases twice in the first inning, and the team came away with a run without the ball leaving the infield in the air. Caleb Doyle reached when he was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on Kent Wilson's single through the right side. After a fielder's choice, and a walk that loaded the bases, Joe Pagano drove in Doyle with an RBI groundout. In the second inning, Doyle doubled off the walk to drive in Jake Millich, and in the third Clarkson tacked on four more runs. Robert Whalen singled through the left side to make it 3-0, Jerrett scored on a wild pitch to put the score at 4-0, and Doyle drove in two with a single to left-center to put the Knights up 6-0.

St. John Fisher awoke from its early offensive haze by posting crooked numbers in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. In the bottom of the fourth, the first run for the Cardinals came across on an RBI groundout, but then a Nick Lemire singled made the score 6-2. Jake Meeker followed with a fly ball that was originally in foul territory, but the windblown pop up dropped in fair grounds to send two across.  In the fifth, Tanner Hodgson drove in a run with a single and tied the game when he scored from first on a throwing error. Brian Norsen then singled in another run to put St. John Fisher on top.

The Cardinals scored five in the sixth inning as Jack Migliore hit a two-run homer and James Murphy hit a three-run bomb. Both teams were relatively quiet on offense in the final three frames of the game.

Doyle was one of three Clarkson players with multi-hit games, going 2-for-4 with a run scored and three more driven in. Cam Jerrett was also 2-for-2 with a run and Jake Millich went 2-for-4, scoring twice.

For St. John Fisher, Ben Lavery scored three times and was 3-for-5 at the plate. James Murphy had just one hit in the game, but drove in four thanks to his three-run homer in the sixth.  

Connor McHugh picked up the win for St. John Fisher, pitching 5.1 innings of strong relief. Mateo Sarabia was saddled with the loss for Clarkson.