PITTSFORD, N.Y. — The Keuka College Baseball team was eliminated from the 2021 Empire 8 Conference Baseball Tournament, losing a pair of games to top-seeded St. John Fisher College on Friday afternoon.
Keuka College ends the season with a 6-16-1 record. The Wolves lost 10-1 in game one and then dropped game two 20-8.
St. John Fisher 10 vs. Keuka College 1 – Empire 8 Tournament – Game 1
The host Cardinals jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but freshman pitcher Jared Beckley (Windsor, N.Y. / Windsor) settled to retire the Cardinals in order in the second. The hosts added a run in the third to make it 2-0 after three.
Keuka College got a fantastic defensive effort from Nick Kocjan (Canajoharie, N.Y. / Canajoharie) as the senior went over the wall in left and brought a home run back in the fourth to keep the game at 2-0.
Down 4-0, Dave Verrett (Cicero, N.Y. / Cicero-North Syracuse) singled to left to lead off the fifth inning, Keuka's first hit of the afternoon. St. John Fisher escaped the inning without damage, however. The Wolves threatened again in the sixth as Maxwell Yale (Hemlock, N.Y. / Honeoye) was hit by a pitch and Kocjan followed that with a single, but again the Green and Gold would be held off the board.
Keuka got its lone run of the game in the seventh. Tyler Broderick (State College, Pa. / St. Joseph Catholic Academy) was hit by the pitch to lead off the inning. Dave Verrett then quickly scored him from first with an RBI double down the left field line to make it 7-1. The Cardinals added three runs in the eighth as they defeated the Wolves 10-1 in game one of the best of three series.
Lead Wolf: Graduate student Dave Verrett accounted for half of Keuka's hits in the game. Verrett had a single and a double with an RBI for the Wolves in game one.
St. John Fisher 20 vs. Keuka College 8 – Empire 8 Tournament – Game 2
The Cardinals once again jumped out to a fast lead, scoring four in the bottom of the first, but the Wolves answered. Dave Verrett singled with one out, and RJ Murphy (Syracuse, N.Y. / West Genesee) followed with an infield single to put two runners on. Verrett came home on a single to center by Josh Tryon (Elmira, N.Y. / Thomas A. Edison) to make it 4-1.
Keuka College continued that momentum into the third as the first five batters reached base with a walk, pair of singles, and pair of doubles. Two runs scored on a single by Ryan Seales (Saratoga Springs, N.Y. / Saratoga Springs), and two more scored on a double by Dave Verrett, giving the Wolves a 5-4 lead. Keuka added one more run in the inning to extend their lead to 6-4.
St. John Fisher got one back in the bottom of the inning and regained the lead, 7-6, in the fourth. The Cardinals added six insurance runs in the sixth. RBIs by Verrett and Murphy in the seventh got two back, but the Cardinals would continue onto the
Lead Wolf: Following his four-hit performance in the first round of the tournament, Josh Tryon continued with his hot bat, leading the Wolves with three hits in the game.
KC Notes:
- The Wolves are now 1-34 all-time against St. John Fisher College
- 2021 marked the fourth straight year that Keuka College has qualified for the conference tournament. The Wolves have finished in the top four in each of those tournaments
- Jared Beckley set a new career-high in going six innings on the mound in game one
- KC Howe (Mount Morris, N.Y. / Mount Morris) got the start in game two, and Joe DiBenedetto (Nanuet, N.Y. / East Carteret (N.C.) came in relief for the Wolves. The due each have 42 career appearances, second-most in program history
- The lone run in game one was set up by Tyler Broderick getting hit by the pitch. It was the ninth time this season that Broderick was hit and the 15 time of his career. Both rank fourth and the Keuka College career list
- Dave Verrett finishes his Keuka College career with 114 games played, ranking seventh on the career list